Phineas is Mine!
by Freedom Fighter
Summary: Isabella loves Phineas, and the Fireside Girls respect her crush.  But what if circumstances forced the troop to reconsider their stance?  There's singing, scheming, and baking mishaps galore as seven girls try to get one boy to say yes to a dance invite.
1. The Challenge

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

Okay, so here we go with my second 'Phineas and Ferb' story. You all know that Isabella absolutely loves Phineas, and that everyone in her Fireside Girls troop supports her crush on him.

But what if circumstances forced the troop to reconsider their stance?

If you're tired of reading Phinabella stories, you'll love this. If you must read all of the Phinabella stories, you'll love this. Basically, all P&F fans should love this. But we'll see.

I usually upload one chapter a week for my stories. That won't apply here, as new installments will go up as soon as they are completed. That potentially means several updates a week and a quick turnaround... or a possibility of updates once in a full moon. Hopefully, it will be the former.

That's all I have to say, I think. Time to start the story!

**Disclaimer**: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter One - The Challenge (09.06.10)**  
**-**

Danville International Airport

"Who are we?" Isabella yelled.

"Fireside Girls Troop 46231!" her troop shouted.

Isabella and her troop walked into the airport terminal, having just returned from a Fireside Girls Jamboree on the other side of the country. They were upbeat as they headed for luggage pick-up, where they not only retrieved their bags, but a medium-sized box.

"What are we?"

"The best Fireside Girls Troop in the country, no matter what anyone says!"

"Darn right, we are!" Isabella added for emphasis.

Katie and Holly pulled the box off of the conveyor belt and opened it right there and then. Gretchen reached in and pulled out a silver trophy cup, with the words 'Troop 46231 - Second Best in the Country.'

"Don't let it bother you, chief," Gretchen said to Isabella. "We know we're the best."

"Yeah, but we still should've won," Isabella responded. "I mean, the winning troop clearly used visual aids in the final singing competition. Might I add, which the rules stated weren't allowed, yet the judges didn't disqualify them for!"

"I say they bribed the judges," suggested Milly.

"Let them have their moment in the sun," Isabella said as they headed out of the terminal, with Adyson helping Gretchen carry their trophy. "The result'll be overturned once our appeal goes through."

* * *

The girls exited the terminal and found Isabella's mom, Vivian, waiting in her car at the pick-up/drop-off zone.

"Hola, Isa!" she greeted her daughter as she got out of the car.

Mother and daughter shared a hug, glad to be together again after being apart for just over a week.

"How was the trip?"

She then saw the second-place trophy Gretchen and Adyson were carrying and was overcome with joy.

"Second place, wow!"

"It'll be first place soon," Isabella predicted. "But I'll explain later."

"Of course, of course! I bet you're all tired from the long plane trip. Let's get you all home."

"Yes, ma'am!" the other girls said aloud.

* * *

Somehow, Isabella and her mom, the entire troop, and all of their luggage managed to squeeze into her station wagon with room to spare, and they were off to the suburbs.

"Before I take you all home," Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro said aloud, "how about I make you all a 'welcome home' snack. Ice cream sundaes okay?"

"Hurray!" all the girls cheered.

"Thanks, Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro," thanked Katie, on behalf of the entire group.

"I bet you're glad to be home," Isabella's mom said to her daughter, "and you're looking forward to the Neighborhood Girls' Choice Dance!"

Isabella did a double-take. Did her mom just say what she thought she had heard her say?

"Neighborhood Girls' Choice Dance?"

"Si. Tomorrow night. You mean you didn't know?"

Isabella shook her head.

"Cell phones and the like were forbidden at the Jamboree, remember?"

Gretchen pulled a laptop out of her bag. She handed Adyson, who was sitting next to her, a wireless antenna so that Gretchen could try to connect to the Internet.

"Regardless," Isabella calmed down, as hearts appeared in her eyes, "I know **EXACTLY** who I'm going to ask out."

Isabella then heard Gretchen gasp from the back seat. All of the girls turned their attention to the troop's resident brainiac.

"According to my sources," she said with some fear in her voice, "almost every boy our age in the tri-state area already has a date for the dance!"

The other girls shared a collective gasp, nearly sucking all of the air out of the station wagon.

"Even Baljeet?" Ginger asked, hoping beyond hope he wasn't taken.

"He has at least three," replied Gretchen. "In fact, the only boy that's still dateless is... Phineas!"

"Yes!" Isabella pumped her fist with glee.

Isabella then ceased her glee when she saw the sad looks on her troop's faces.

"Don't worry," she said, trying to lift their spirits. "I'm sure that there'll be other dances."

Feeling that she had done her job, she started to think about how to approach Phineas. The others, though, weren't satisfied... though they wouldn't dare voice their complaints to their leader.

Or would they?

* * *

The station wagon pulled into the driveway of the Garcia-Shapiros, and the group started to emerge from the vehicle. Isabella's mom immediately went to the front door, unlocked it, and headed in, off to start preparing a snack. The troop left their things in the car, and were about to head inside as well. But then they saw Isabella start heading across the street, to the Flynn-Fletcher house. Before she could set one foot on the street, though, Isabella felt a hand clasp onto her left shoulder.

Isabella turned around and saw that the hand belong to Adyson.

"Where are you going?" Adyson asked her fearless leader.

"To go ask Phineas out," answered Isabella.

"I don't think so."

"What?" Isabella's eyes grew large with shock.

"What?" the other girls reacted shortly thereafter.

"You heard Gretchen," stated Adyson. "There's only one boy that hasn't been asked out yet, and that's Phineas."

"Uh huh. And your point?"

"How does that give you and only you the right to ask him out? We obviously don't know if he feels the same way."

"Excuse me, Adyson? This is Phineas we're talking about! Of course he likes me! We're meant to be together!"

The others gathered around the pair, surprised at this turn of events.

"If you're meant to be together, then how come he doesn't like you like you like him?"

"Of course he likes me! He just... hasn't found the right way to say it yet."

"Face the facts! He's just as likely to say yes to you as he is to me!"

"Wait... you wanna ask Phineas out?"

Adyson nodded.

"If he doesn't like me like I like him, as you say," growled Isabella, "then what makes you think you have a better chance at getting him to say yes to you than me?"

"The numbers don't lie," Adyson debated, before turning to Gretchen to get some supporting evidence. "Gretchen?"

"She's kinda right, chief," Gretchen meekly sided with Adyson as she showed a bar graph on her laptop. "My calculations show you have only a 35 percent chance of Phineas saying yes to you, with 7 percent no, and a majority 57 percent chance he doesn't understand the request and or doesn't see it as a date."

Gretchen then flipped to a second bar graph, which compared each of the girls' chances of asking Phineas out and getting a 'yes' response.

"In fact, if I run a simulation putting any of us in your place, the percentage that any of us is successful in getting a yes from Phineas runs from the mid-20s to the low-30s. Even Ginger scores a 24, and she'd prefer Baljeet over Phineas."

"Essentially," Adyson simplified, "the chances of any of us getting Phineas to say yes to a date proposal are about as good as yours."

"But you don't even like Phineas that way!" argued Isabella.

"Maybe so. But seriously... do you think I want to go to the dance by myself? No way!"

The other girls started murmuring amongst each other, as they seemed to be buying into Adyson's reasoning. And Isabella only had to look at their faces to see that Adyson was, indeed, winning the argument.

"You all would try to ask Phineas out just to avoid going to the dance by yourselves?" Isabella asked, trying to get a firm confirmation out of the others.

Adyson and Milly instantly nodded in agreement. Katie followed two seconds later, followed by Holly and Ginger soon after. Isabella then looked at her second-in-command, Gretchen, with a sad look on her face. Gretchen had a similar look of sadness as she contemplated the pros and cons of the debate.

"Please," pleaded Isabella, "not you too, Gretchen!"

Gretchen looked at Adyson, who was glaring at her, giving her what seemed to be an 'agree or else' look. She then turned back to Isabella to render her decision.

"Sorry," Gretchen apologized, "but numbers logic triumphs over true love."

Seeing this, Adyson immediately called for a motion to vote.

"Alright," Adyson said, "all those in favor in stating that Phineas Flynn is a free agent, in terms of who can ask him out to the Neighborhood Girls' Choice Dance, say yea!"

"Yea!" everyone said in near perfect unison, except for Isabella.

"All opposed?"

"Nay," grumbled Isabella, with a hint of venom in her voice tone.

"Motion granted! Phineas Flynn is a free agent!"

All the girls cheered with glee, save for Gretchen, who was still very apprehensive about betraying her best friend, and Isabella, who was understandably unhappy about this development.

"Technically," Gretchen stepped in, stopping the celebration, "since Isabella is troop leader, she is the only one who can request a motion to vote."

"I appreciate your reference to the Fireside Girls rulebook," a sad Isabella said to Gretchen, "but I think, given the circumstance, I have to let this one go."

"Really, chief?"

"Really?" gasped Adyson, having believe Isabella would have reneged on the vote.

Isabella's face had turned from one of sadness to one filled with hope and determination.

"I'm letting it go... because I know, deep down in my heart, there's absolutely no way that he'll say yes to anyone but me! But I feel it's prudent that we set some ground rules."

"Like what?" Adyson asked.

"First off, the 'competition' does not begin until eight o'clock tomorrow morning. No one is allowed to even talk to Phineas before then. After eight a.m., he's fair game until either someone succeeds in getting Phineas to say yes... or the dance starts at eight p.m. Second, no team efforts! No double-dating attempts and such. Third, no sabotage attempts! Not that I **THINK** anyone will try to do so. As such, only one person is allowed to be around Phineas. If more than one of us is present at any time, none of those around him cannot ask him out until only one of them remains with him. And fourth, and most importantly, the first person to get him to say yes, wins."

"Those sound fair and impartial," voiced Gretchen.

"Definitely," Adyson agreed.

The others also nodded their approval.

"To make it official," Isabella stated, "all those agreeing with the rules, say yea!"

"Yea!" everyone shouted.

"All opposed?"

Silence.

"Motion granted! Tomorrow, for 12 hours, the members of Fireside Girls Troop 46231 will be focused on only one thing!"

Isabella paused for a moment to clear any second thoughts out of her mind, and then made it official.

"Trying to be the first to get Phineas to say 'yes!'"

**To be continued...**


	2. Gretchen Really Needs Love

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

Now comes the meat of the story. One by one, you'll see each of the girls try to figure out what's the best way to approach and impress Phineas, and then actually try to execute their respective plans.

We start with Gretchen, who wasn't too thrilled about the prospect of openly flirting with her best friend's crush. Let's see what she does, shall we?

Oh, because all of the chapters from here on out take place around the same time, don't be surprised to see a number of repeated scenes and spotting other Fireside Girls making cameos in each other's chapters.

**Disclaimer**: The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Two - Gretchen Really Needs Love (09.09.10)**  
**-**

"What did I agree to yesterday? Why did I agree? Why didn't I do anything more to keep it from getting as far as it did? Is Isabella gonna hate me for siding with the others?"

Gretchen found these questions continuously running through her mind on a repeating loop as she, dressed in her Fireside Girls uniform, made her way on foot towards the Flynn-Fletcher house.

"I know she likes him so very, very much!" she said aloud, even though no one was around her. "So why am I risking our friendship over this? Phineas admittedly does have a lot of features that girls would find interesting, but I don't like him the way Isabella likes him."

Gretchen sighed as her head looked up towards the partly cloudy sky. After a few seconds of doing that, she lowered her head and then turned it to the right. It was at that point that she realized that she was standing in front of Isabella's house.

Gretchen let out another sigh.

"I wish I knew how Isabella felt about Phineas so, if I have to do this, at least I can calculate the simplest way to get an affirmative response."

A light bulb then turned on inside her head, as she got an idea.

"That's it!" she shouted.

Gretchen ran back the way she came, back towards her house. Just as she was out of sight, the front door to the Garcia-Shapiro house creaked open just a little bit. Isabella stuck her head out, looked left, then right, and then left again.

"Must be hearing things," she told herself. "It's too early for any of them to be trying anything yet."

Isabella pulled her head back inside, and closed the door.

* * *

Some short, unknown amount of time later, Gretchen returned, this time with a pen in one hand and a notepad in the other. Again, she turned to look at Isabella's house, as in her mind she debated whether or not the plan she had just formulated would work.

The debate lasted about two seconds. Not because her sharp mind instantly picked out the correct side to take, but because her thinking process was disrupted by the sound of a shrill teenager's voice filling the air.

"**PHINEAS! WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THIS TIME?**"

Gretchen turned to the source of the sound, which was the backyard of the house across the street. Phineas' house.

"Sounds like Candace," Gretchen thought to herself, "and given the position of the sun in the sky, she's precisely on schedule."

* * *

Gretchen had already scribbled a few preliminary notes in her pad as she walked into the Flynn-Fletcher backyard and was studying them so intently as if trying to memorize them. Which she was.

She was so involved in committing her notes to memory that the sound of Candace slamming the rear sliding door shut after going back into the house sounded only like a fly swatter hitting a plaster wall.

Even worse, she didn't even notice that the bush that she had just walked past suddenly sprouted a Fireside Girls beret at the top and a pair of legs with ankle-length white socks and black strapped shoes on at the bottom.

"Based on my past observations," Gretchen thought, "if I can just do the same things Isabella does whenever she sees Phineas, maybe I can recreate her emotions and see if I can get him to elicit similar reactions. That should be adequate enough to get me on the right track to asking Phineas out."

Gretchen then added, with enthusiasm.

"For Isabella. Chief's gonna be so proud of me!"

Once in the backyard, Gretchen saw Phineas and Ferb hard at work on their 'Big Idea' for the day. Gretchen could usually reason out their plans even if she saw them before they were finished, but on this particular day she couldn't figure it out at all.

"I'm sure they'll tell me once I ask."

The two boys continued to work, not having spotted her yet.

"Okay... the first thing Isabella does is always show curiosity and general interest..."

Gretchen walked to within normal earshot range and said...

"Hi, guys!"

"Oh, hey Gretchen!" Phineas greeted.

He was looking down from his perch on whatever they were building, about six feet above the ground. Ferb, on the other hand, hadn't heard her over the welding he was doing a bit further up.

"So... whatcha doin'?" she asked, as sweetly as she could. "Um... I did that right, right?"

"Yes," replied Phineas. "Yes, you did. And to answer your first question, we're building a Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector."

"Really?"

"Yep!"

Phineas used a rope-and-pulley system to lower himself safely down to the ground. Once down, he ushered Gretchen to follow him to the other side, where wires were leading out of the giant device and to a computer monitor and a keyboard, whose frames hadn't been attached to it yet.

"This huge thing is a projector," Phineas explained, "which will point up to the sky and can be aimed to project a message over the entire tri-state area! The idea is people tell us important events they can't forget, like anniversaries, dates, birthdays, meetings, etc., and when appropriate reminders are needed, our machine will project them into the sky. No one will ever forget anything important again!"

"Great! Chief could've used it last week, when she somehow forgot that she had scheduled Pinky for a visit to the vet."

"That's exactly why we built this! Wanna help?"

"Sure!"

"We need a bunch of small LED lights of various colors. Probably about 50... dozen."

"No problem!"

Gretchen started to walk off to take care of her assigned task.

"If we're not here when you get back," Phineas shouted, "we're going to be setting it up near City Hall!"

"Got it!"

* * *

"Curiosity satisfied, interest high," Gretchen noted as she wrote in her notepad.

Gretchen got to the driveway, passed by the Flynn-Fletcher's car, and was about to reach the street end when she looked up and saw Isabella standing there. And staring intently at the roof.

"Uh... Chief?"

Hearing Gretchen's voice, Isabella turned her head to look forward, towards her second-in-command. Isabella had a concerned look on her face, observed Gretchen, one that made her feel a bit uneasy about what she was doing.

"What were you looking at?" Gretchen asked, jumping in before Isabella could ask the expected question.

"Oh," Isabella replied, taking the bait, "I swear I saw someone on the roof!"

Gretchen turned around, and the two girls looked up. Their eyes scanned the roof, but they saw nothing out of the ordinary up there.

"Oh well," Isabella gave up, "must've been my imagination."

The two turned their backs to the roof and they trotted a few steps away from it. As they did, they missed the sight of Milly appearing and heading for one of the bedroom windows.

"So tell me," Isabella looked at Gretchen, a bit of anger seeping into her voice, "what are you doing here? Without me?"

"Well, Chief," Gretchen quickly answered, attempting to quell her best friend's fears, "I just wanna say that I fully support your crush on Phineas. That's why I'm only participating in this for research."

"Research?" Isabella raised an eyebrow, not fully convinced. "What **KIND** of research?"

"To be honest... I've always wanted to see what it's like to be in love. You know, like you are! I just figured, if I could recreate your obviously successful methods of impressing boys, then I could use those same methods to snag a boy of my own."

Isabella frowned at Gretchen.

"A boy whose name isn't Phineas?"

Isabella smiled.

"Okay then!" she exclaimed cheerfully.

"You approve, Chief?"

"Of course I do! But if that's all you wanted to do, you could've just asked me! I'm glad to give you a few pointers."

"Thanks the same, Chief... but it's not the same unless I test out my hypotheses personally."

"I understand. Just don't get too into your study, okay?"

Gretchen saluted.

"Aye aye!"

Gretchen then headed off, believing Isabella had given her study her blessing... with cautious optimism, of course.

"Okay," Gretchen thought to herself, "next comes adulation and admiration. And I can take care of those..."

* * *

"Once I've gotten these!"

Gretchen was exiting a hardware store, pulling a little red wagon holding a large crate marked 'LED lights.'

"Now... I wonder where Phineas and Ferb are."

She got her answer, as an empty spotlight appeared high in the sky. Gretchen quickly triangulated its source, and concluded that it was originating from...

"City Hall!"

* * *

Gretchen had to walk a few blocks to get to City Hall, and was admittedly pooped by the time she arrived. She spotted a small group of people gathering on the sidewalk. She saw that they were being handed fliers by Ferb, who was advertising the Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector. Speaking of said invention, Phineas was next to it, running some tests.

As Gretchen approached him, Phineas heard her coming and turned around to greet her with a smile.

"Ah... the most important part of the project has arrived!"

Gretchen's feet and heart stopped as her face started to blush red.

"I must being doing better than I thought!" Gretchen thought to herself, "Phineas thinks I'm important!"

But her visions of love were dashed when he took the handle of the red wagon she had been pulling from her.

"The LED lights! Can't project messages in the sky without them!"

Gretchen quickly regained her composure, covering up for her spontaneous daydream.

"The rest should be here any minute," she said, just as it looked as if Phineas was being to wonder how 50 dozen lights could fit in one crate.

"Looks like that any minute is now!" Phineas pointed out.

A delivery truck from the hardware store Gretchen had gone to came to a stop in front of City Hall. Phineas went over to accept the deliveries.

"Nice job, Gretchen!" complimented Phineas as he looked back at her.

Gretchen smiled, pulled out her notepad and pen, and checked off two more things on her list... adulation and admiration.

"Almost there," she said aloud. "Though, now that I think about it, aren't adulation and admiration essentially similar in meaning?"

Before she could answer her own question (the correct response is yes, by the way), she heard a familiar voice calling out to her.

"Gretchen!"

Gretchen turned to her right and saw Isabella running toward her, with a stack of fliers cradled in her arms. But she wasn't alone, as also with her was Adyson, also holding her own packet. It was a good thing Gretchen showed up when she did, because Isabella and Adyson were glaring virtual daggers at each other, unhappy with the other being present at that point in time.

"Finally!" Isabella said with relief, "someone I can trust!"

"Nuh uh, you did **NOT** just go there!" Adyson retorted defiantly.

"Look," Isabella continued to talk to Gretchen whilst ignoring Adyson, "Adyson and I got into an argument about which one of us should give out fliers and which one should stay here to help Phineas!"

"She's just jealous because she knows Phineas will say yes to me the moment I pop the question!" Adyson exclaimed, giving her take.

"I am **NOT** jealous!"

"Then how come every time I've tried to approach Phineas today, you've been right next to him? We agreed to no interference!"

"But I haven't..."

"And we also agreed that no one was allowed to ask him if any other troop member was present!"

"I haven't been around him all day! In fact, Gretchen saw Phineas this morning before I did!"

"Aha!" Adyson pointed at Gretchen. "You've been working together! You probably had her keep an eye on Phineas until you could get to him."

"What? Now you're just accusing me out of spite!"

"We agreed against team orders too! Isn't that right, Gretchen?"

Gretchen whistled and looked away, making the smart move by staying completely out of the argument.

"Gretchen isn't like you or anyone else!" Isabella shouted. "I know in my heart that she's not going to try and ask Phineas out behind our backs!"

Adyson crossed her arms over her chest, thinking about disagreeing. But if there was any believable sentence that had come out of Isabella's mouth in the past few minutes, it was that last one.

"Fine," Adyson agreed. "We can give out fliers, Gretchen can stay and help Phineas."

Isabella and Gretchen nodded in agreement. As Adyson and Isabella debated a plan of action, Gretchen walked over to Ferb, who was giving out the last of the fliers in his hands.

"Ready to do this?"

Ferb answered by pulling out a blueprint from his pants pocket, which he unfolded to show her where all the LED lights would be installed. And, boy, were there a lot to be installed.

"This could take a while with only three of us..."

* * *

"Boy, Ferb, you know how to make awhile seem like just a few seconds."

Gretchen made that comment as Ferb stuck his head out of the top of the projector, blowing a small amount of smoke away from the six-pronged LED light screwdriver-like tool attached to a metal belt around his waist.

"All that's left is to install the projector lens," Phineas said as he walked up to admire Ferb's handiwork.

"Can I help?" Gretchen asked.

"Sure! How 'bout typing up a test message so we can see if it works?"

Gretchen nodded, then ran over to the keyboard as Phineas went to grab the lens. But the moment she found herself standing in front of the control monitor, her mind drew a blank.

"What can I use for a test message?" she asked herself aloud. "It has to be something that'll get everyone's attention."

Gretchen pulled out her notepad again and discovered that she had not planned past admiration.

"Oh no!" she gasped.

"Hey... cool thingy-ma-bob!"

Gretchen looked to her right, and slightly up, and saw Stacy standing next to her.

"What does it do?" Stacy asked.

"Well," Gretchen explained, "it's supposed to display messages in the sky so people remember important things they have to do. Kinda like a PDA, only this one belongs to the entire tri-state area."

"Cool!"

"There's only one problem... I'm supposed to think of a test message, but not one comes to mind that seems important enough."

"Aren't you supposed to be super smart or something? You should be able to think of one easily without my help."

"I would, but I'm kind of distracted at the moment."

Stacy looked at Gretchen and immediately knew the problem.

"Boy trouble."

"Boy trouble?"

"Boy trouble. Tell me all about it."

"Well, you see, I have this friend, a girl, who really, really adores this other friend, a boy. Then there's this girls' choice dance tonight, and the aforementioned boy is the only one without a date. So the friends of the girl all get panic-y and desperate that they have this contest to see who can be the first to get that boy to say yes. And I'm trying to help the first girl, the one that actually does like the boy, win."

"Uh huh, uh huh," Stacy nodded continuously as a plan of action formed in her brain. "I have an idea."

Stacy walked over the keyboard and started typing. Gretchen tried to peek around the older teenager to see what keys she was stroking, but Stacy instinctively blocked all of the younger girl's attempts.

"It's ready!" Gretchen heard Phineas yell. "Send the message!"

"Sending!" Stacy shouted before Gretchen could say anything.

Stacy pressed the 'enter' button, sending the message off.

"Tell your 'friend' I hope everything works out," Stacy said, emphasizing the word 'friend' with air quotes as she walked away.

"Wait!" Gretchen called out. "What did you type?"

She didn't have to wait long for an answer, as the projector's spotlight shined in the sky, and words started appearing in it, each set staying visible for two to three seconds apiece.

'Phineas,'  
'Would U Like'  
'2 Go 2'  
'The Girls' Choice'  
'Dance With Me?'  
'Gretchen.'

"What?" Gretchen squeaked in surprise.

Phineas slid down the projector, scratching his head in confusion as he looked at Gretchen, who shut it off before the message could start repeating.

"Uh... not the test message I was expecting..."

"I can explain!" Gretchen flailed her arms in a panic.

Phineas then started laughing unexpectedly, catching Gretchen off-guard and resulting in her being the one offering a look of bewilderment.

"I get it now!" Phineas calmed himself. "You wanted to test the device's effectiveness of grabbing someone's attention! I have to say, you got me good! I almost thought you were asking me for real!"

"Now why would I do that?" Gretchen said with a smirk. "I know there's only one girl for you."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Then my answer is yes."

Phineas then looked up at Ferb.

"Hey, Ferb! We'd better go inside and file the proper paperwork before City Hall closes for the day!"

Ferb slid down, and the two brothers headed inside. Only when they were already halfway up the steps did Gretchen suddenly realize the oddity of Phineas' response.

"Wait a minute!" she gasped. "Did he say 'yes' to me? But... but... that's not what I wanted!"

"Oh, really?"

Gretchen gulped, feeling two pairs of eyes staring into the back of her head. Sure enough, Isabella and Adyson were standing behind her, and both looked as if they were ready to tear Gretchen limb from limb.

"In my defense," Gretchen said as she turned around to face them, "I wasn't the one who typed that message..."

"I guess I was wrong," admitted Adyson, "girl played us both!"

"I trusted you!" Isabella half-growled, half-on-the-verge-of-tears.

"Chief! Adyson! Let me explain!"

Isabella and Adyson moved in on Gretchen, who backed up until she felt the keyboard jabbing her in the lower back. As the two taller girls drew closer, they walked over Gretchen's notepad, which she had dropped just seconds earlier. It was open to the page where she had made her list.

It read:  
- Curiosity  
- General Interest  
- Adulation  
- Admiration  
- Admittance and Proposition of Love

The first four had checkmarks next to them, but the last one had been crossed out, and an arrow was drawn from it to a set of three words at the bottom of page, in all capital letters.

**JEALOUSY RUINS FRIENDSHIPS!**

**To be continued...**

**Author's Notes:**  
When I first started writing this chapter, I started regretting putting Gretchen at lead-off. It was going to be, essentially, a second set-up chapter, this one setting up the framework for the other girls' tales. That, and I couldn't think of a wow-inducing 'Big Idea' for the girls' activities to central around.

Still, I think the chapter picked up enough in the second half to make it enjoyable. And there's enough questions deployed that you should be anxious to see how the other girls spent their day.

Next installment when I get around to it. Reviews appreciated!


	3. Sing Your Heart Out, Holly

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

Second up to bat is Holly, who takes up a musical approach to try and win Phineas' heart. Why not... a lot of people's favorite part of the show is the songs, after all! But in this chapter, Holly singing is only half the fun.

The other half... is who gets to sing with her!

**Disclaimer:** The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Three - Sing Your Heart Out, Holly (09.17.10)**  
**-**

"They say the best way to a man's heart... is through song!"

Holly thought out loud as she sat on a bench in the park, listening to some pop song blaring from the headphones attached to her MP3 player.

"But I'm not Phineas or Isabella or any of the others. I can't come up with a song on the spot, much less a good one."

She leaned forward slightly and rested her chin on the palms of her hands. She was brainstorming, trying to come up with an idea.

"The only thing that's certain is that I want the last line of the song to be me asking Phineas out on a date! But I don't know what to do about the rest of the song."

Holly suddenly remember that she was sitting near the exact spot the day Phineas and Ferb created that giant bubble for them to float around in.

"That's it!" she exclaimed. "I'll go over to Phineas' house! That'll give me an idea!"

* * *

Holly walked into the backyard of the Flynn-Fletcher house, and saw Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella hard at work putting together the Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector. With the boys lost in building and assembling, Isabella was the only one to recognize Holly's arrival at first.

"Holly," Isabella said with a frown as she walked up to her.

"Um... hi," Holly responded to the not-so-kind greeting.

"What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to see what Phineas and Ferb were up to. There's nothing wrong with that!"

"I suppose," Isabella eased up.

"So... really, what are they up to? 'Cause I'm not sure what I'm supposed to be looking at here."

At this point in time, the projector was barely a foot tall and still very much in the early stages of creation. So Isabella humored Holly by answering her question truthfully.

"Phineas and Ferb are building this device that projects messages into the sky. Phineas says they're supposed to help people remember important things they have to do. You know... like me recalling that I was supposed to take Pinky to the vet last week?"

"Oh yeah!"

"Look, Holly... do you really have to do this? You know how I feel about Phineas!"

"I do! But, y'know... don't I have a right to see what if? I agreed to do this because I wanna see if I could ever be attracted to a boy like Phineas."

"A boy like Phineas doesn't mean the boy named Phineas, Holly."

"Take it easy! After all, like Adyson said... if he truly likes you, then you've got nothing to worry about!"

"That reminds me..." Isabella growled as her eyes darted around the yard, "where **IS** Adyson? I haven't seen her yet. I know she's got some sneaky idea to win..."

"That's it!" Holly exclaimed, perking up at the word 'idea.' "That's the idea I need for my idea to work! Thanks, Isabella!"

Holly then ran out of the yard, leaving a befuddled Isabella behind.

* * *

"It's the perfect idea!"

Holly's mind raced with lyrics as her feet pulled her to the nearest bus stop.

"I can write a song about all the big ideas that Phineas and Ferb make reality! The roller coaster, the time machine, the roller rink, the monster truck stadium, the paper-maché plane..."

Holly then skidded to a stop as she came to the bus stop, the now abundance of ideas causing a problem of their own.

"But I can't possibly sing about all of them! I gotta figure out which ones I can create one short song about."

Holly took a seat on a nearby bench and started to toy around with possible lyric combinations in her head. Her thoughts were interrupted after a few minutes when a bus pulled up to the curb. She got up and was about to board the bus when she spotted an ad board on the side of it.

An ad for Danny's Music Shop.

"Yes!"

* * *

"No!"

Holly's initial elation had turned into utter disappointment, as she had gotten off the bus right in front of Danny's Music Shop, only to find a sign on the door that read 'On Tour with Love Händel... Rock On!'

"So much for that idea. Love Händel could've helped me write a song, easy! Now what?"

Holly looked around, hoping to get another burst of inspiration. She did... in the form of a brown-red station wagon heading their way.

"I know hitchhiking should only be used in desperation," Holly said aloud, "but..."

Holly stuck her right thumb out and up, trying to draw the attention of the oncoming vehicle. It worked, as the station wagon slowed to a stop in front of her.

"Yes!" Holly pumped her fist enthusiastically.

The front passenger side window rolled down, and Candace stuck her head out of the car.

"Another one?" Candace growled at her. "I thought Fireside Girls always stuck together!"

"We're having a Phineas crisis," Holly said in reply.

"You're not the only one," Candace grumbled.

"Be nice, Candace," Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher shouted from inside the car.

"Fine," Candace sighed. "Do you need a ride somewhere?"

"I'd appreciate it," answered Holly.

Candace shook her head, then motioned Holly to open the back passenger door.

"Thanks!" Holly complimented appreciatively.

Holly opened the door, and got a little surprise... and also understood what Candace had meant by 'another one'... as she saw Milly sitting inside, waving a friendly hello.

* * *

"Thanks for the ride, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher!"

"Oh, you're welcome, dear!"

Holly, Milly, Candace, and her mom got out of the car and walked into the Googolplex Mall through the main entrance. Once inside, Holly decided that now was the time to part ways with the group.

"See ya later!" she waved goodbye to them.

As she ran off, Milly shouted something at her.

"I'm gonna win!"

"No way!" Holly playfully shouted back. "I'm gonna win!"

* * *

Once separated from Milly, Holly could get back to composing her song in her head. In fact, she now had a pen and paper in hand, which she was using to record the lyrics as she came up with them.

So far, she had...

_I know what we're going to do_  
_Today is what ya always say_  
_Every time I hear that big phrase_  
_Imaginin' you're sayin' it to me!_

"That's a start," she said out aloud.

Holly continued to walk through the mall, adding potential lyrics to her working song as they came to her. She passed by several stores and eventually reached the food court. It was then that she felt her stomach rumble in anguish for nourishment.

"Boy... it sure is hard to think on an empty stomach."

Holly walked over to the nearest eating establishment, which happened to be Mr. Slushy Dawg. Luckily for her, there was no one in line, so she walked right up to the counter, which Jeremy was manning.

"Welcome to Mr. Slushy Dawg!" greeted Jeremy. "'Slushy Dawgs will never get any better!' How may I help you?"

"One regular dawg!" ordered Holly.

"Comin' right up! Say... aren't you one of those Fireside Girls?"

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Jeremy grabbed a regular dawg from warming tray behind him and handed it to Holly.

"Say," Holly said as she squinted and paid for her food, "don't you play an instrument or something?"

"I do, actually. The guitar."

"Great! I need help composing a song. Would you be willing to help?"

"Anything for a Fireside Girl. Just let me clear it with my boss..."

Jeremy was about to do just that, when the ground beneath them started to rumble. He and Holly turned his attention to the mall's dedicated food court entrance, and watched as scores and scores of football players, cheerleaders, band members, and their fans all raced in. A majority of them raced to Mr. Slushy Dawg, and Holly quickly became lost in a sea of starving, unruly teenagers.

"I'm gonna have to take a rain check!" Jeremy shouted over the mob.

Holly pushed her way through the crowd, and after a few minutes managed to make her way out. And luckily, she still had her slushy dawg intact.

That is, until an errant elbow reached in, hitting Holly's hand and sending her lunch flying a few feet away... before going splat on the food court floor.

"Awww..."

Holly lowered her head and sulked as she slowly walked off.

* * *

She would eventually make her way to a random bench somewhere in the midst of the mall, where she broke down and cried.

"I... I'll never... finish this song now!"

She continued to cry for an unknown period of time, as several mall patrons passed by without going up to her and asking what was wrong. Finally, Holly felt she had cried more than enough, so she wiped the water from her eyes away with her sleeves.

She then glanced down at the lyrics to her unfinished song in her hand. She studied them once last time, then crumpled the piece of paper up, got up from the bench, walked over to the nearest trash can, and tossed the ball inside. Or at least she thought she did, as it bounced off of the rim and back out... though she didn't notice it as she had already started to walk away.

"I guess Isabella will be happy with one less competitor for Phineas."

"Hey! Hey, Holly!"

Holly stopped and turned around to see who was calling her. He say a boy with glasses walking her way, but she didn't exactly know whom he was.

"Uh..."

"Irving!" he shouted. "Phineas and Ferb's biggest fan!"

"Oh!" Holly exclaimed, finally remembering.

"What is **THIS**?"

Irving pulled out the piece of paper with Holly's song on it, except now he had uncrumpled it.

"That's my song!" Holly shouted, snatching it from Irving. "Well, **WAS** my song, anyway."

"You're writing a song about Phineas? **AWE-SOME!**"

"Like I said, I **WAS**! But... I'm not Phineas, or Isabella, or any of the others. I can't compose a song to save my life!"

"Actually..."

Irving snatched the song sheet back and read over the lyrics.

"This is actually pretty good so far."

"Really? Or are you just saying what you think I wanna hear?"

"I'm not kidding! I love the direction the song is going. Just gotta find the right melody accompaniment, and you've got a winner!"

"Okay... but who can I get to do that for me?"

Irving pointed at himself.

"You?" Holly raised an eyebrow with skepticism.

"I'm not Phineas and Ferb's number one fan just for show! I can help you compose a tune that's sure to get their attention!"

"I dunno..."

"I'll buy lunch for you!"

Holly looked down and put her hands on her stomach. It instantly rumbled to remind her that her first attempt at lunch was lying on the food court floor.

"Deal!"

The two shook hands to seal the agreement.

* * *

Some time later, Holly and Irving had made it to his house. More specifically, to his bedroom, where Irving was already typing in the lyrics into the computer so that they had a copy they could edit instantly.

"Okay," Holly asked as he looked over Irving's shoulder, "now what?"

"I have a couple ideas for lyrics," replied Irving, "but first we need to find the right song to take homage too."

Irving pulled up the search engine and got to work.

"In the meantime... do you know how to play any instruments?"

Holly smirked.

"Do I know how to play any instruments?"

* * *

An unknown amount of time later, after Holly had raced home and back, Irving's bedroom was filled with an assortment of instruments... from the trumpet to the triangle, and seemingly everything in between.

"Really?" Irving looked oddly at her. "You couldn't pick just **ONE**?"

"And now you see why I'm not in charge of song creation. Or have the patch for it. I think only Isabella has that one right now."

Irving searched through the pile, and eventually pulled out a portable keyboard, which had a long strap attached so it could be held as if it were a guitar.

"How are you at keyboard?"

Holly snapped her fingers several times.

"Who do you think you're talking to, boy? They don't call me 37 fingers Holly for nuthin'!"

Irving just stared at Holly, having no idea if she had just insulted him or was touting her own skills.

"Just start the music composing montage," Holly told him, not wanting to clarify the point.

"Music composing montage it is!" exclaimed Irving.

Irving pressed a button on his computer keyboard, which actually happened to be labeled '**MONTAGE!**,' and it began...

* * *

"Well, that was a quick montage," Holly remarked.

Finally, after several hours of work, the song was complete! Holly and Irving were now outside, walking away from his house. Holly was holding the finished version of the song and was studying the notes as Irving trotted alongside her, the musical keyboard hanging around his neck.

"I wish we had more time to practice the song as a whole," Holly said out loud, "but it'll be sunset soon! I still even haven't figured out what to wear, much less hoping that none of the others have already succeeded in wooing Phineas."

"This is a wooing song?" Irving gasped in shock. "I thought this was a worshiping song!"

"Hello! Were you even paying attention to the lyrics?"

The two reached a bus stop just in time, as a bus pulled up to the curb. The two boarded together... which was a surprise to Holly.

"Thanks for everything," she said as they took a seat together, "but I think I can take it from here."

"Oh, come on!" Irving pleaded. "If you're going to see what Phineas and Ferb were up to today, then I wanna come along too!"

"Fine. Just leave the song to me, okay?"

Irving nodded, and Holly turned to look at the window as she began to mentally prepare herself to sing. Irving, on the other hand, had other thoughts seeping into his brain.

* * *

Holly and Irving got off of the bus about a block from City Hall, forced to walk the rest of the way since the police had apparently cut the street off to all vehicles.

"Whatever they're doing must be big!" Irving whooped with glee.

Holly became nervous upon seeing the big crowd, but her feet kept moving her closer and closer to City Hall... and to Phineas. Finally, as they came upon the building, where the crowd was thickening, she spotted Phineas and Ferb, as well as their completed Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector. She also saw a set of speakers being set up on the front steps, as well as a podium.

"Secure the stage!" Holly ordered Irving. "I'll get Phineas!"

Irving did as he was told, while Holly made her way over to the last available boy in the neighborhood.

"Phineas!" she said his name out loud, coming to a stop in front of him.

"Hey, Holly!" Phineas waved hello.

Ferb did likewise, in his stoic, silent way. Holly quickly scanned the area, to see if Isabella or any of the others were around. When she didn't see anyone, she grabbed Phineas by the hand and started pulling him towards the stage. Ferb followed them without hesitation.

"Um," Phineas slightly protested, "the mayor's not here yet."

"Isabella wanted me to get you," Holly quickly lied.

"Well, in that case..."

Phineas let Holly pull him to the open area just in front of the podium. Then, seeing Ferb had tagged along, she went over to him and whispered something in his ear. He responded with a thumbs up, then ran off.

"What's going on? Where's Isabella?"

"Phineas," Holly turned and looked deep into his eyes, "I have something to confess."

"What is it?"

"Well... instead of telling you, I'd rather sing my confession. Hit it, guys!"

Ferb ran in and jump kicked the podium out of the way, grabbing everyone's attention. Irving entered, playing the keyboard and starting the song. Ferb came back to center stage to pull Holly up onto it and to the microphone, as Phineas watched with intrigue, not sure what was going on. Once Holly had grabbed the mic, she immediately belted into the song's verse.

_[To the melody of "The Boy is Mine"]_  
_I know what we're going to do  
Today is what ya always say  
Every time I hear that big phrase  
Imaginin' you're sayin' it to me!_

_Roller coaster, backyard beach  
Found a caveman to teach  
Isa was with you on that cruise  
That made my heart inside bruise_

Without warning, Irving, with his own mic, jumped in to sing.

_X-ray glasses, backyard spa  
Back and forth through time not once, but twice  
Isa helped you become a one-hit wonder  
Guess what, that was a blunder!_

Phineas was confused, and Holly was annoyed at Irving's act, but moved onto the next stanza without missing a beat.

_Candace was carved into Rushmore  
But if ya really cared 'bout me_

Irving jumped back in.

_You'd take a model of my head  
And install it on there instead!_

The two continued their back-and-forth, as Phineas couldn't muster a reaction, and Irving tossed the keyboard to Ferb, who picked up where he had left off without missing a beat.

_[Holly]_  
_You better give it up_

_[Irving]_  
_Never ever, ha ha_

_[Holly]_  
_Isa needs to see  
Phineas is mine!_

_[Irving]_  
_I think that you should_

_[Holly]_  
_Back off my new beau_

_[Irving]_  
_Step away, Isa  
Phineas is mine!_

Seeing an undesirable effect of the song on Phineas, Holly quickly altered the song, to start attacking Irving.

_[Holly]_  
_Stop makin' this weird, you sick fanboy  
This is a love song, you big geek  
Phineas is mine, don't you see?__  
I'm gonna ask him out to the dance!_

_[Irving]_  
_You went and tricked me, lovesick girl  
I thought this was a worship song  
Phineas belongs to me, number one  
To spite you, I'll ask him out too!_

_[Holly]_  
_Go, give it up!_

_[Irving]_  
_Never ever ever ever!_

_[Holly]_  
_Can't you plainly see_

_[Irving]_  
_Phineas is mine!__  
You better give it up!_

_[Holly]_  
_No no no!_

_[Irving]_  
_Everyone says to me_

_[Holly]_  
_Phineas is mine!_

_[Irving]_  
_Mine... all mine!_

_[Holly]_  
_You're just insane-ane!_

_[Irving]_  
_He's my property!_

_[Holly]_  
_Phineas is mine! Not yours!_

_[Irving]_  
_But mine!_

_[Holly]_  
_Not yours_

_[Irving]_  
_But mine_

_[Holly]_  
_Not yours_

_[Irving]_  
_But mine!_

Both jumped off the stage, knelt before Phineas on either side of him, and each took a hand as they transitioned to the coda, which they sang in unison.

_[Holly & Irving]_  
_Phineas, I ask  
Do you want to go  
To the dance with me  
Hey, he is mine!_

The song ended, with both Holly and Irving looking deep into Phineas' eyes, hoping the answer would be 'yes.' Phineas was still stunned beyond belief, and was still contemplating his reaction.

But after Phineas didn't respond for a whole minute, Irving decided to answer for him.

"So... I take that as a yes?"

**To be continued...**

**Author's Notes:**  
Ha! I just loved the way the song turned out, even if the lyrics aren't really all that good. Songwriting is crazy hard, I don't know Dan, Swampy, and the rest of the gang create a new song for every episode.

The purpose of having Holly and Irving sing is two-fold. Holly, if you didn't know, is voiced by a girl named Cymphonique Miller, who actually happens to have a good singing voice. Ironically enough, she's the daughter of Master P, who was one of the more popular rappers about a decade ago. And then we have Irving, who's involved just because I wanted take his fan worship to a new, creepier level.

"The Boy is Mine" is a great duet song from the late '90s by Brandy and Monica, and one of my favorite R&B songs of all time. It was also the inspiration for the song Holly and Irving sang, titled, the same as this fic, "Phineas is Mine."

Enough chatter from me. Stay tuned to see who's next!


	4. Isabella and the Status Quo

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

So you're probably wondering... why is Isabella third and not last? Well, I figured that Isabella's day needed to be presented earlier on to put in place a slightly more concrete time frame to help you, the fans, kind of have a better idea of where the other girls' attempts fall in. As a result, this is the only chapter, other than the first and the final ones, in which all seven Fireside Girls appear.

For the few people who aren't Phineas/Isabella fans... sadly, you're not going to like this chapter. Everyone else... sit back and enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Four - Isabella and the Status Quo (09.22.10)**  
**-**

_"Face the facts! He's just as likely to say yes to you as he is to me!"_

_"Wait... you wanna ask Phineas out?"_

_Adyson nodded._

_"Essentially," Adyson simplified, "the chances of any of us getting Phineas to say yes to a date proposal are about as good as yours."_

_"But you don't even like Phineas that way!" argued Isabella._

_"Maybe so. But seriously... do you think I want to go to the dance by myself? No way! No way! No way! **NO WAY!**"_

* * *

An alarm clock started to ring, and a small, delicate hand reached out from underneath the bed sheets to shut it off. A girl wearing purple pajamas pulled off the sheets and leaped out of bed; her face unable to be seen because all of her hair was covering it. That was rectified seconds later when she shook her head to whip her hair into shape.

Isabella, the girl under that former bush of hair, looked into the mirror, and smiled as she admired her natural cuteness.

"Don't you ever change!" she told her reflection, pointing at it.

She then walked back over to her clock to check the time. It was exactly eight in the morning. It was then that she remembered what she had said yesterday...

_"First off, the 'competition' does not begin until eight o'clock tomorrow morning. After eight a.m., he's fair game..."_

Isabella's cheery smile turned into a frumpy frown. She pulled a pair of binoculars from the top of her dresser and ran over to her bedroom window. She used the binoculars to look across the street, towards the Flynn-Fletcher house, to see if there was any early morning activity. But from what she could see, the yard was dead.

"Nothing?" Isabella scratched her head in confusion as she lowered her binoculars. "Huh. Maybe yesterday didn't happen after all."

She walked away from the window, convinced that everything that had happened yesterday since they returned from the Fireside Girls Jamboree was just a dream.

* * *

After taking her time getting ready, Isabella, dressed in her everyday clothes, was sitting at her dining room table about 45 minutes later, enjoying a breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs.

"So," she said to herself aloud, "what do I wanna do today?"

She then giggled. She knew exactly what she wanted to spend the day doing.

"I'm going to spend all day with Phineas!"

Suddenly, Isabella's mom entered, holding a mug full of coffee in her left hand and a glass of orange juice in her right, which she promptly handed to her daughter.

"Ooh!" Mrs. Garcia-Shapiro squealed. "Does that mean you two are going to the Neighborhood Girls' Choice Dance together tonight?"

Isabella gasped in shock, releasing the grip on her glass of OJ. It fell to the ceramic tile floor, breaking upon impact into small, shattered, orange-smelling glass pieces.

"Isa!"

"Sorry, mom!"

As she turned around to go to the kitchen to get a broom and a mop, Isabella hopped out of her chair and ran for the stairs.

"The dance really is happening tonight!" she thought aloud. "Then that means..."

She made it up the stairs and up to her bedroom, where she ran for her cell phone. Picking it up, it instantly vibrated in her hand. Someone had just sent her a text message.

"It's from Adyson," she observed as she opened the message to read it. "'Phineas is mine!' Oh no! Then the competition..."

Isabella reached for her binoculars and raced to the window again. She looked through them... and saw the back of someone wearing a Fireside Girls uniform walking up the Flynn-Fletcher's driveway.

"I'd recognize the back of that head anywhere!" Isabella growled. "If even **SHE'S** going through with it..."

She tossed the binoculars aside and bolted for the stairs.

* * *

It took her just 30 seconds from her to get from her bedroom window, out the front door of her house, across the street, and to the driveway.

"Alright," mumbled Isabella, "where are you, Gretchen?"

Then, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement on the roof. Her gaze darted up there, but whatever it was, it had gone away.

"Another one? Trying to get upstairs... to Phineas' room?"

But Isabella could clearly hear construction work being done in the backyard. So it's doubtful he would be in his bedroom at that moment. Then what...

"Uh... Chief?"

Isabella lowered her head and looked straight ahead of her, and noticed Gretchen standing before her.

"What were you looking at?" asked Gretchen.

"Oh..." Isabella stammered. "I thought I saw someone up there."

Gretchen turned around and looked up to the roof. Isabella watched her scan it with her eyes until she was satisfied that there was nothing up there.

"Oh well, must've been my imagination. So tell me, Gretchen..."

Isabella started walking Gretchen down the driveway, as she started interrogating her second-in-command.

"What are you doing here? Without me?"

"Well, Chief, I'm doing research."

"Research?" Isabella raised an eyebrow, not fully convinced. "What **KIND** of research?"

Gretchen responded, but Isabella wasn't really listening. Instead, she was studying Gretchen herself. Her speed of speech, how much her eyes moved around, and if any of her muscles were twitching in any abnormal way.

"...snag a boy of my own," Gretchen finished.

"A boy whose name isn't Phineas? Hmmm... okay then!"

"You approve, Chief?"

"Of course I do! Just don't get too into your study, okay?"

Gretchen saluted.

"Aye aye!"

As Gretchen ran off, Isabella breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least I don't have to worry about Gretchen. One down, six to go!"

Isabella proceeded to the backyard...

* * *

...where she greeted the man of her dreams the same way she did every day.

"Hi, Phineas! What'cha doin?"

"Oh, hi Isabella!" Phineas waved hello.

Phineas was in the process of lifting himself up off the ground, and was about halfway up to where he wanted to be. At his current height, which he was stopped at to greet Isabella, his feet were as high up off the ground as the top of her head, if she were standing up straight.

"Funny story," Phineas lightly chuckled. "You're the **FOURTH** person to ask me that today!"

"Fourth?" Isabella's eyes went wide. "**FOURTH?**"

"Yeah... so... I hope one of them already explained it to you."

Isabella started to think to herself.

"Let's see... that means three before me. Candace probably tried to bust them already, so that's one. Gretchen was modeling me, so there's a good chance she asked as well. That's two. So who else..."

"Oh," Phineas shouted, interrupting her thoughts, "Adyson called me, but she hung up before I could give her the answer to her question!"

Isabella nearly screamed in disgust. Did Adyson try to ask him... over the phone?

"Tell her... the answer is yes!"

Isabella was stunned silent.

"Um, Isabella? Are you..."

"I'll be right back," she suddenly said.

Isabella quickly ran around the corner, to the side of the house. As she pulled out her cell, she glanced back around the corner to see if Phineas had chased after her. He hadn't; he instead had turned his attention back to his idea-of-the-day. In the clear, she speed-dialed Adyson's cell phone.

Seconds later, she heard one ring. A second ring. Then a third. And, just as it was about to go to voicemail...

"Hello?"

"Sweetwater!" Isabella growled.

"Oh. It's just you."

"Don't you 'it's just you' me, Adyson! What's the deal, asking **MY** Phineas out to the dance over the phone?"

"Over the phone? I did no such thing!"

"Phineas told me you called him!"

"Yeah, but not to ask him out! I just sent him a picture of the dress I was going to wear tonight and asked him if he was impressed. But..."

"Hold that thought."

* * *

Isabella marched back over, pulled a grappling hook out of her pocket, and threw it up to the top of Phineas and Ferb's structure. She grabbed onto the rope with her left hand while still holding her cell with her right. She then climbed up the side, walking up it while her head was facing straight skyward.

"Um, Isabella?" Phineas looked oddly at her as she reached the makeshift ledge he was on.

Without asking, Isabella reached into Phineas' shorts' pocket, took out his cell, and searched it for the photo of Adyson. Seconds later, she found it, took one good look at it, then tossed the phone back to Phineas, who instinctively caught it.

"Alright," Isabella said to Adyson as she began making her way back down, "no more phone contact, though... only in-person from here on out! Oh, and... was that **LEG** I saw?"

Ferb slid down from his perch at the top until he was alongside his step-brother. He looked at Phineas, as if to ask 'what was that all about?'

Meanwhile, Isabella had repelled back down to the ground, and was wrapping up her chat with Adyson.

"Well, good luck! 'Cause you're gonna need all the luck you can get!"

With that, Isabella closed her phone, ending the call.

"There's only one way to prevent Adyson from asking Phineas out. Or any of the others, for that matter!"

She then raised a finger into the air, showing that she was making an absolute declaration.

"**I WILL SPEND THE REST OF THE DAY BY PHINEAS' SIDE, NO MATTER WHAT!**"

"Good," Phineas said, walking over to her with a list, "how about helping gather materials to build some sort of vehicle to transport our device to City Hall?"

"Okay, Phineas," Isabella replied, lost in his eyes.

He handed her the list, then went back to work.

"No, wait!" she exclaimed, coming back to her senses, but realizing it was too late. "Oh..."

She scanned the list of needed parts, and smiled.

"Hey... I know exactly where to get all of these! I just have to get them all, then come back here, and build it next to Phineas! But... how do I make sure no one comes back here until then?"

Suddenly, her chihuahua, Pinky, walked into the backyard. As usual, the little dog had his tongue hanging out and his entire body shook as if he was perpetually cold.

"That's it!"

* * *

Minutes later, Isabella was on her bicycle, heading downtown. She had assigned Pinky to watch Phineas and Ferb in her absence. Pinky took to the task with ease...

Maybe too much ease, as he plopped down in front of Phineas and Ferb's machine and took a nap.

* * *

"I'm back!" Isabella announced her return.

Isabella then turned to shout back down the driveway.

"Okay, park it right there!"

She was talking to the driver of the delivery truck, who brought his vehicle to a stop on the now-empty driveway.

"Thanks, Isabella!" Phineas said as he walked past her and went to sign for all of the items.

Isabella smiled dreamily as she trotted into the backyard, where Ferb was putting the finishing touches on the outer structure of their giant projector. She was brought back to her senses when she heard Pinky barking at her feet.

"Good job, Pinky!" she said as she squatted down to pat him on the head. "I've got a nice reward for you!"

Isabella showed Pinky a small paper bag, out of which she pulled a hot, grilled cheese sandwich from. Pinky jumped up and down in appreciation as Isabella unwrapped the sandwich and laid it out on the ground. Pinky barked happily, then downed the meal in two giant bites.

As she fed Pinky, the delivery man was starting to wheel materials off the track and past her, to put next to the projector.

"Ready to get this show on the road?" Phineas asked, walking up next to her.

"Ready whenever you are," Isabella cooed in response.

* * *

It took an hour or two, but the transport structure was completed, and the trio of Phineas, Isabella, and Ferb were making their way downtown, towards City Hall. They all rode in the mini-vehicle's truck-like cabin, where Ferb was behind the steering wheel, although he was actually controlling it using a remote control, Phineas was in the middle, and Isabella was by the passenger-side window.

"So," Isabella said, in a sugary sweet voice, "can I ask you something, Phineas?"

"Sure," Phineas replied. "Anything for you."

"Alright, then. Phineas... will you go out with..."

Suddenly, they came to an abrupt stop, frightening Isabella so much she nearly jumped out of her socks... and through the front windshield! Luckily, she had fastened her seat belt, as had the boys.

"We're here," Ferb announced.

"Well, that was fast!" Phineas said.

The boys unbuckled their belts and hopped out of the cab. Isabella did the same and was about to open the door on her side, when someone opened it for her.

"Adyson?"

"Isabella. Well, well. The fact that you're still hanging around Phineas means..."

"You haven't gotten the chance to ask him, have you?"

Adyson smirked. "So, looks like we're in the same boat, oh fearless leader!"

Isabella jumped out and landed safely on her feet, next to Adyson. They started glaring at each other.

"Sorry to interrupt... whatever you two are doing," Phineas cut in once again, this time holding a stack of fliers. "Can one of you help Ferb give out fliers?"

He pointed towards Ferb, who was already attracting a crowd. He then turned the girls' attention to the Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector, which had already been unloaded and placed on display near the front entrance to City Hall.

"Sure," Isabella said, willingly letting Phineas hand her the fliers.

Phineas walked off. Once she was sure he wasn't looking back, she shoved the stack into Adyson's hands.

"Hey! What the..."

"You heard Phineas. Go help Ferb!"

"Excuse me? He handed **YOU** the fliers!"

Adyson shoved them back into Isabella's arms.

"You go! I know the moment I leave, you'll run over and pop the question!"

"Like you weren't thinking of doing the same thing, Little Miss Perfect!"

The two growled angrily, neither willing to back down and let the other get a few minutes alone with Phineas. But, just as it seemed as if they were going to start resorting to violence, she spotted an amiable solution out of the corner of her right eye.

"Gretchen!"

* * *

"Fine," Adyson agreed. "We can give out fliers, Gretchen can stay and help Phineas."

Isabella and Gretchen nodded in agreement. As Gretchen headed off to do her job, Isabella and Adyson debated which way to go.

"We're going this..." Isabella pointed one way, before being cut off.

"No, we're going this way!" Adyson exclaimed, grabbing half the fliers from Isabella with one hand and grabbing her arm with the other.

"Ack! Adyson!"

"If we have to do this together, we're doing it **MY** way! Now, c'mon!"

Adyson let go of Isabella and continued walking. Tired of Adyson's shenanigans, Isabella let out a yell of rage. She then snapped her fingers, and, without warning, Adyson's body began to expand. Like a balloon. Isabella smiled evilly as her hair inexplicably began rising above the back of her head, as blue flames appeared behind her. Adyson screamed for her life as her body got bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and bigger...

And then, unable to take it anymore, Adyson burst. Leaving nothing behind.

* * *

"**MOVE IT, ISABELLA!**"

Isabella shook her head, getting back to reality. Adyson was staring at her again, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Right behind you!" Isabella shouted.

Adyson turned around and started walking off again. Isabella then added, under her breath...

"Floozy."

* * *

After getting rid of her pent-up need to hurt Adyson, Isabella joined her fellow Fireside Girl in giving out fliers on a busy street corner, a few blocks from City Hall.

"Come see the Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector!" announced Isabella to passersby.

"If you can look up, you'll never forget anything!" shouted Adyson.

The two girls were quickly getting through their allotment of fliers, and sending people on their way. Just as they finished, somebody rode up to them on a bicycle, skidding to a stop just a few inches from them.

"Are you **TRYING** to kill someone?" Adyson yelled at the rider.

But Isabella had a slightly more chilled reaction.

"You should really be more careful..."

The two then gasped in surprise when they saw the rider was... Ginger. And she was frazzled about something other than the fact that she just nearly ran them over.

"Quick! Have you two seen Katie run past here?"

"No," Isabella and Adyson quickly shook their heads.

"Katie!" Ginger yelled as she started to pedal away. "You're gonna kill him! You're gonna kill him!"

"Maybe we should help..." Isabella began to suggest.

"Ginger can handle it," Adyson quickly shot down, "but..."

She pointed up to the sky, above City Hall.

"We might need to handle this one!"

Isabella followed Adyson's gaze and instantly agreed as a message started appearing in the sky. A message from Gretchen... asking Phineas out to the dance.

"I told **YOU** she couldn't be trusted!" Adyson shouted as she bolted for City Hall, dropping what fliers she had left in hand.

Isabella followed right behind, hoping her eyes were deceiving her...

* * *

But they weren't...

"Chief! Adyson! Let me explain!"

Isabella and Adyson moved in on Gretchen, who backed up until she felt the keyboard jabbing her in the lower back. As the two taller girls drew closer, they walked over Gretchen's notepad, which she had dropped just seconds earlier.

"Research! A mistake! Then there was Stacy! And, and..."

Adyson wasn't buying it.

"No pleading or explanation's gonna save you now, uh... uh... uh..."

Adyson was about to grab Gretchen, but suddenly stopped. Seeing her halt, Isabella also stopped. The two girls looked at each other, then at Gretchen.

"Um..." Isabella spoke up, "what **WAS** your last name again?"

Gretchen opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted when they all heard a lot of shouting coming from the entrance. The trio peered around the other side of Phineas and Ferb's invention-of-the-day. To their shock and dismay, the other Fireside Girls had shown up while they weren't looking, and they were all near or heading to the stage.

Looking one way, they saw that Katie was about to open a white cardboard box on a table beside the stage, and Ginger seemed to be pleading her not to do it.

"You're gonna kill him!" Ginger shouted at her.

"Stop exaggerating!" Katie shouted back. "It's not that bad!"

Turning another way, they spotted Milly running towards the crowd beginning to gather around the stage, and she was wearing an upside-down black trash bag, for some odd reason.

"This is gonna work!" she could be heard encouraging herself. "It's got to!"

Then, the trio glanced center stage, where Holly was pulling Phineas towards the open area in front of the podium.

"What's going on?" they heard Phineas ask. "Where's Isabella?"

Isabella, Adyson, and Gretchen looked at each other in panic. They were about to lose the 'competition' to one of the underdogs!

"Truce?" Isabella suddenly stuck her hand flat out.

"I'm in!" Adyson enthusiastically shouted, putting her hand in, on top of Izzy's.

The two turned to Gretchen.

"Wait!" objected Gretchen. "Since he technically already said yes to me, although not my intention, wouldn't that render any attempts after mine null and..."

"If it wasn't your intention, then you asking wasn't legal!" Isabella declared.

"So," Adyson glared at her, "are you in or are you out?"

Gretchen gulped, then placed her hand in, putting it on top of Adyson's.

"Okay," Isabella barked orders. "Gretchen, stop Milly from gettin' to that stage! Adyson, handle whatever surprise Katie and Ginger are springing! And I'll take care of Holly!"

"Aye aye!" Gretchen and Adyson acknowledged in agreement.

"Then, let's go girls!"

The three split off in different directions.

"There's only one girl that's going to ask him out!" they yelled in unison. "**PHINEAS IS MINE!**"

**To be continued...**

**Author's Notes:**  
So if you're confused about how the chapter ended... all I'm gonna say is that it's intentional. The answers are gonna come soon enough, and then it'll all make sense.

You'll notice that I also used some of Gretchen's chapter in here, and word-for-word. Remember, all of the 'meat' chapters are happening concurrently, so some repetition should be expected. Still, I cut some dialogue out just to keep unnecessary padding to a minimum.

Anyway, halfway home! Review if you like; next chapter coming soon!


	5. Milly Matures

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

Now it's Milly's turn... and she's going to be the fun one!

If you've been paying attention, each of the girls has been getting some 'help' from another character from the show. So you should already know that Milly's helper is Candace. This chapter shows how that pairing came to be, and what resulted because of it.

And kind of a spoiler, but I have to say it... but this is the chapter I was worried about in terms of whether this story should be rated K-plus or T. But after a lot of thinking, I figure "iCarly" has been getting away with similar stuff as of late and it still keeps its TV-G rating. So I decided I'm okay keeping this K-plus. Naturally, if anyone disagrees, let me know...

**Disclaimer:** The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Five - Milly Matures (09.30.10)**  
**-**

"What am I going to do?"

Milly was up bright and early, having willingly decided to participate in the competition to see which girl could ask Phineas out to tonight's dance and get him to say yes first. But she had one problem as she was walking down the street towards Phineas' house.

"What **AM** I going to **DO**?"

Milly had made it to the driveway and was walking up it when a familiar sounding screech filled the unusually quiet summer morning air.

"**PHINEAS!**"

Upon hearing it, Milly's mind snapped to reality, and she ran to the opening in the backyard fence to find the source. Even though she already knew whose voice was yelling Phineas' name.

"**WHAT ARE YOU UP TO THIS TIME?**" Milly heard Candace ask as she peered around the corner.

"Well, you see," Phineas began to explain. "We're building a Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector! You see, what it does is..."

"That's all I need to know!" Candace shouted as she turned to walk back into the house. "I'm telling Mom!"

"That's it!" Milly thought. "Candace! She'll help me figure out how to win over Phineas!"

She was about to follow Candace into the house, but Milly stopped when she saw a fellow Fireside Girl walking up the driveway. It happened to be Gretchen. But Milly quickly noticed that Gretchen hadn't seen her yet.

Milly reached for a nearby bush and put it on, then stood perfectly still, not even taking time to make sure her entire body wasn't visible. Thankfully, Gretchen walked by her without even noticing. At the exact same time, Milly heard the rear sliding door of the house being slammed shut by Candace.

Once Gretchen disappeared around the corner and into the backyard, Milly took the bush off and placed it back in the ground, as if she had never touched it.

"Hmmm... how do I follow Candace if Gretchen's back there?" Milly asked herself aloud, before suggesting her own answer. "I could try the front door."

Milly then pulled a grappling hook out and threw it up to the gutter. She tugged on it to make sure the hook was going to hold, and then she started scaling the side of the house using the attached rope.

"Of course, as Isabella would say, this way's more fun!"

It was a tough climb, but Milly managed to make it all the way up without slipping. She raised her arms in triumph, then sat down to catch her breath as she gathered the rope back up and pocketed it and her grappling hook.

"Note to self," she said aloud, "Apply for a 'Scaling a House' patch."

Once she gathered herself, she realized that she had another dilemma.

"So... which side of the house is Candace's room on?"

She decided to carefully make her way across the front side of the roof, heading for the closest window. Her adrenaline was pumping so hard, her brain wasn't comprehending how huge the risk of her falling off was.

That was strange because, a second later, she spotted Isabella exiting her house and heading over from across the street. Milly quickly made her way to the opposite side of the nearest window sticking out of the roof, and squatted down there. This time, she took care to make sure no part of her body could be seen.

She then promptly nearly spoiled her hiding place by peeking out to see if Isabella had seen her. And then nearly got caught when Isabella, now standing in the driveway, started to turn her head in Milly's direction.

Milly ducked back into her hiding spot, hoping she hadn't been caught. At first, it seemed as if she hadn't... until she started hearing Gretchen's voice.

"How long are those two gonna talk?" Milly asked herself. "I can't stay like this all day! My legs are starting to seriously cramp!"

Milly then looked ahead and over to the other window on that side.

"Wait... I think that's Candace's bedroom!"

With the pain starting to become more apparent in her legs, Milly threw caution to the wind and made a bolt for that entrance. Somehow she made it without slipping, and fortunately the window was open, as she dived right into the room.

Once inside, she quickly peered back out, again hoping she hadn't been spotted. Luck would be on her side, as she saw they were on the edge of the sidewalk and had their backs turned to her.

"Yes!"

Milly closed the window, and turned around to realize that she had made a miscalculation. She wasn't in Candace's bedroom.

She was in Phineas and Ferb's.

"Okay..." she murmured, twiddling her fingers. "Never been in a boys' room before..."

She whistled loudly, trying to get her mind on anything but looking at whatever treasures, or unsightly objects, that might be lying around, as she made her way out through the open door.

Once out of the room, she breathed a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She then proceeded down the hallway, to Candace's room. The door was left ajar, and Milly knocked on it, not wanting to enter unannounced. But when no answer came, she pushed the door open slowly.

Before she knew it, Milly was not only inside, but walking around and searching the room with her eyes. She saw several pictures of Jeremy, many of him alone, including one taped to the ceiling, and a couple with him and Candace together. She then spotted a diary resting on top of her neatly made bed, though it was closed and presumably locked.

"Hmmm..."

She turned to Candace's vanity desk, where she kept all her makeup and such. And there, in the center, by its lonesome self, was a tube of lipstick standing on its end. Milly walked over, picked it up, and read the lipstick's brand name aloud.

"'GlossTacular. You're nobody unless you're somebody.' Well, okay then! If Candace can use this to dazzle Jeremy, then I can do the same with Phineas!"

Milly took the cover off of the tube, lifted it up to her lips, and applied a gracious amount. Once she was done with how much she had on, she tossed the tube aside and ran out of the room...

* * *

...and down the stairs and out the back sliding door, without coming across anyone. She ran out, past a sleeping Pinky, and over to Phineas and Ferb, who were about halfway up their unfinished structure, chatting about something.

"Phineas!" Milly shouted to get his attention.

The two boys looked down, and their eyes were immediately drawn to the extraordinary amount of lipstick on her lips. And her cheeks. And the top of her chin. And just beneath her nostrils.

"I know we've done a lot this summer," Phineas said aloud, "but I didn't think we'd lost so much time that it was Halloween already!"

Ferb agreed, as he put an ugly green-faced witch's mask on. As for Milly...

* * *

...seconds later, she was inside the house, trying to wash the lipstick off of her face using water from the kitchen sink. But just as she had begun, Candace walked in.

"How can Mom not believe me? All she has to do is look out the..."

Candace stopped when she saw someone Milly at the sink.

"How did **YOU** get in here?"

Milly looked at Candace, and the older girl screamed in fright seeing lipstick messily dripping off of the younger one's face.

"Candace, it's just me!"

"What... what did you do to your face? And is that **MY** lipstick?"

Milly sadly nodded.

"Did Phineas put you up to this?"

"No! I'm just trying to impress a boy, and..."

Candace's anger subsided when she heard the words 'impress a boy,' and she immediately went into 'big sister' mode.

"Say no more! Tell me what he looks like!"

"Well, he..."

"Never mind, it doesn't matter! I'll show you a sure-fire way to catch his eye! First things first... the outfit's gotta go!"

"But... this is my Fireside Girls uniform!"

"And that's for Fireside Girl thingies... not for flirting with boys! Ooh, I know! You can come with me to the mall! You're sure to find something there!"

* * *

"Are you sure her mom's okay with this?"

"Of course she is! It's a girl thing, Mom, you wouldn't understand!"

Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher looked over at Milly, who had a sweet smile on her face, then back at her own daughter, who had a look of determination on hers.

"Fine," Linda relented. "She can come with us. But I'm running some errands, so you're responsible for watching her."

Linda then turned to get into the family station wagon, and Candace and Milly followed, with the younger girl climbing into the back seat.

* * *

On the way to the mall, they picked up a surprise hitchhiker, Holly. The two began a quiet chat in the back seat.

"What'cha up to?" Milly asked Holly, almost whispering.

"Trying to write a song to sing to Phineas," Holly responded, in the same, soft tone. "You?"

"Candace is showing me how to dress to impress by taking me clothes shopping."

Holly snapped her fingers. "Man, wished I would've thought of that!"

"Want in?"

"Nah. It's supposed to be every-girl-for-herself, anyway."

"Oh well."

They sat together quietly the rest of the way.

* * *

"See ya later!" Holly waved goodbye to them.

As she ran off, Milly shouted something at her.

"I'm gonna win!"

"No way!" Holly playfully shouted back. "I'm gonna win!"

"I guess I'm off as well," Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher said to Candace. "Meet me back here in two hours, and don't lose sight of Milly. Alright?"

Candace nodded, then watched as her mom walked off, disappearing into the crowd. She then turned to look at Milly.

"Let's get this over with. The sooner a boy likes you, the more time I get to spend with Jeremy!"

Candace led Milly to the nearest kid-and-teen clothing store.

* * *

And soon enough, Milly was trying on a plethora of different outfits, as suggested by Candace, hoping to find something to bring out her best features. She went through a number of different combinations, which included...

"How about this?" Milly asked.

Milly was a blue short sleeve shirt, with the words 'Momma Needs Bacon' printed across the chest in yellow letters, and a pair of blue jeans.

"Too tomboy," Candace replied.

A few tries later, Milly emerged from the dressing room wearing an orange sweater vest on top of a white short-sleeve dress shirt, with khaki pants.

"Too coach chic."

Milly then resorted to dressing exactly like people she and Candace knew. She started by coming out in a her-size version of Jenny...

"Too hippie."

And then Isabella...

"Too you-can't-pull-that-much-cuteness-off."

Followed by her looking like a mini-Candace.

"And I'm the only one who can make that color look good!"

And lastly...

"**FOR HEAVEN'S SAKES, NO!**"

Milly lowered her head and sulked back into the dressing room, as she had come out wearing a piece from the 'Summer All the Time Collection' (naturally, Phineas' outfit).

* * *

Milly was still sad as Candace led her into the her seventh store of the day, and immediately the latter walked over to the accessories section.

"I can't believe we've failed to find one thing that looks good on you! Sigh... Mom made it look so easy when I was your age."

Candace grabbed a giant red bow from the display and clipped it to the back of her head. She then glanced at a nearby mirror and admired herself in it.

"This actually looks pretty good on me," she commented pleasingly.

"Hey, Candace!"

Candace turned around, and saw Jeremy, dressed in his Slushy Dawg uniform, albeit a dirty one, standing behind her.

"Jeremy!"

Milly ducked behind a nearby clothes rack, and watched as the two teenagers talked.

"If I didn't know any better," Jeremy said with a smile, "I'd be inclined to think you and Stacy were twins."

"It does make us look all match-y, doesn't it?" Candace said as she looked at herself in the mirror again.

Milly suddenly got a bright idea. As Candace and Jeremy continued to chat, the young brunette reached for a giant yellow bow and headed for the checkout stand.

* * *

With the bright, giant, new yellow bow in her hair in place of her normal-sized one, Milly walked out of the Googolplex Mall's main entrance, through the parking lot, and out towards the main street.

"Now, how am I going to get to Phineas so he can see me?" she asked herself aloud.

But another, more pertinent issue quickly reared its ugly head. Milly's brain finally recognized that the bow might be a little too big, and she started to struggle to keep her head from being forcibly tilted towards her left shoulder.

"Oh... boy..."

She reached up and manage to unclip the bow from her hair.

"So much for that idea. Ow, my neck!"

She tossed the blow in the nearest trash can and walked back towards the mall. But with her back turned, she didn't see or hear the transport vehicle carrying Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella, stop at a nearby intersection.

"Wait," Phineas said, squinting his eyes to look past Ferb and out the driver's side window, "is that Milly?"

"No," Isabella quickly jumped in, grabbing Phineas by the shoulders and turning him to face her. "No it isn't!"

Ferb turned to look as well, but all he saw was a random car driving through the parking lot, heading for the exit. He shrugged, then turned his attention towards 'piloting' their own vehicle to City Hall.

* * *

"**HEY!**" Candace yelled. "**WHERE DID YOU RUN OFF TO?**"

Milly looked uneasy as Candace didn't look too happy as she stood at the mall's front entrance.

"**ARE YOU TRYING TO GET ME BUSTED?** I turn my back for one second, and you disappear!"

"Sorry, Candace," Milly tried to apologize.

"I'm done helping you! Good luck trying to win that boy over without my help!"

"Candace?"

"Oh, and for that, you can walk home too!"

"**CANDACE!**"

Candace gulped. It wasn't Milly shouting her name. It was her mom. And she was standing right behind her, holding a white shopping bag.

"How can you say that to a little girl?" her mom scolded her. "I thought I was raised you better!"

"But, Mom..."

"It's okay!" Milly suddenly spoke up. "Candace here is just helping me rehearse for this play at the children's theater I'm trying out for!"

"You're into theater?" Candace and Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher both asked, before the latter looked at her daughter, curious as to why she would question that.

"I mean... of course she's into theater!" Candace clarified. "Just look at her! Who wouldn't smile when she appears on stage?"

Catching on, Milly flashed her cutest smile, accented with doe-shaped eyes. That was enough to convince Linda that they were telling the truth.

"Whew. For a minute there, I was beginning to think I had another reason to worry about you, dear. Now, c'mon... I've got to make a run to the supermarket."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Candace asked, annoyed.

Linda started to walk off to the car. Candace squatted down to thank Milly for saving her bacon.

"I guess I owe you an apology. You didn't have to do that, y'know."

"I know you didn't mean what you said. And I shouldn't have run off without telling you. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. It's just... I have enough to worry about given my brothers and all. I didn't want to add losing a little girl to the list."

Candace then decided to change the subject.

"Say... I'm sure there's other ways to win a boy over other than dressing to impress."

Candace began sharing her 'other ways' as she and Milly followed Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher to the car.

* * *

A little while later, Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher, Candace, and Milly were making their way through the produce section of the supermarket. Candace was still giving Milly advice, and the young girl was willingly absorbing all of the information like a sponge.

"Honey," Candace's mom jumped in, "do you mind getting me a couple of cantaloupes? I need them for the fruit salad I'm making for our bridge club game tomorrow."

"Sure, Mom!"

Milly was about to follow Candace, but she stopped when she felt something in her pocket vibrate. She reached in and pulled out her shaking cell phone. One of the girls had sent her a text message.

"Let's see," she said as she read it aloud, "'Boys are here at City Hall. Don't think anyone's gotten him to say yes.'"

Milly brightened up again. There was a glimmer of hope, even with it already being this late in the day. Yet, she had no idea how she was going to get there. And if she did, what else she could try to win over Phineas.

"How about these?" Milly heard Candace ask, about 30 feet away.

Candace was holding two cantaloupes up, at chest-level.

"They look great!" Candace's mom responded gleefully.

Milly saw this, and suddenly she had her idea. As she ran off to get something, Candace pulled out her cell phone after she had felt it vibrating.

"'C. P&F doin' big thing! City Hall. -S.'"

Candace smirked. They were only a few blocks away.

"**MOM!** Have I got news for you!"

* * *

Milly's luck got even better when she found out Candace had convinced her mom to drive them to City Hall, where Phineas actually was at that very moment. The instant Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher had found a parking spot, just under a block away, Candace pulled her mom out and tugged her towards City Hall. The two had completely forgotten about Milly...

Which was okay with her, as she had to modify her uniform before running off to find her date-to-be.

But soon enough, Milly emerged from the car. She was wearing a black trash bag, with a hole cut in the bottom of it for her head to squeeze through, and her legs sticking out of its normal opening at the other end. Apparently, whatever way she had changed her outfit, she wanted to make sure Phineas was the first to lay eyes on it.

Milly started running towards City Hall. She, oddly enough, passed Candace and her mom about halfway there, where they had stopped as Candace tried to get her to look at something that had unexpectedly been displayed in the air.

Eventually, she arrived at her destination. Unfortunately, she saw a crowd gathering around the stage. But that didn't deter her from trying to find Phineas. She started to try and make her way into the mob, hoping to locate her target somewhere near the stage.

"This is gonna work!" she said aloud to encourage herself. "It's got to!"

As she got closer and closer, she heard music being played, and the voice of someone singing... Holly.

"I guess she got her song done after all," Milly mentally noted.

Soon enough, a second voice jumped in. A male voice. One Milly didn't instantly recognize, but one she could care less about.

"Excuse me, excuse me, excuse me!" she kept repeating as she made her way past one person, then another, and a third.

But the crowd was so dense that Milly still hadn't emerged in front of the stage by the time Holly had finished her song.

"Gotta get there before she asks..." Milly thought to herself.

Then, all of a sudden, she could see space opening up in front of her. Milly was giddy as she was about to step out...

When, without warning, someone grabbed a hold of her trash bag, gripping just hard enough that it ripped off of Milly's body...

Leaving her exposed just in front of the crowd. And in plain sight of Holly, Irving, Isabella, Ferb, and Phineas. As well as Gretchen, who emerged behind Milly, holding the aforementioned trash bag.

"Milly!" Isabella gasped.

"Whoa..." a stunned Gretchen could only muster to say.

"That's messed up!" commented Holly.

"What is **WRONG** with you?" reprimanded Irving.

But the biggest reaction came from Phineas, who was flabbergasted, to say the least, over everything that had happened that day, particularly in the last couple of minutes.

"I can't believe I'm saying this... but now, I've seen everything."

Milly was standing before the group, wearing her modified uniform. Modified in only one way.

The attachment of two green apples, which were individually taped to the outside of the front of Milly's shirt, over her chest, with the stems sticking outwards.

"And I'm speechless," Ferb stated contradictorily.

**To be continued...**

**Author's Notes:**  
How's **THAT** for an ending?

Again, if anyone thinks that's inappropriate for a K-plus rated story, let me know. But I think I'm okay.

You're probably wondering... why did I choose Milly to pull this with? Because she's one of the lesser-known Fireside Girls, and I figured she's more open to wild personality interpretations than someone like Adyson or Isabella. Also less likely to corrupt innocent minds on a character they identify with (again, Isabella).

Next chapter should be fun as well, in a different, less-offensive way. Hopefully.


	6. The Cake is a Lie, Katie

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

So in this chapter, we see what Katie is up to. This chapter is also the most unique in the batch, in more ways than one... as you will see. Apparently, not everyone is following the pre-established rules.

And I assure you... this chapter isn't hazardous to anyone's health. Except maybe Phineas'...

**Disclaimer:** The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Six - The Cake is a Lie, Katie (10.05.10)**  
**-**

"My mom always said, 'The best way to a man's heart is through his stomach.' And I always listen to my mom!"

Katie was walking through the supermarket, holding a basket as she made her way up and down the aisles. A few adults stared at her as she passed by, all wondering why someone her age was there without a parent. But no one bothered to make a big deal of it, even as Katie continued to walk around and not stop to pick up anything.

Then, out of the blue, Katie pulled a shopping list out of her pocket, right in front of a whole display filled with various brands of cake mix.

"Everybody loves cake!" Katie exclaimed as she licked her lips in anticipation. "So Phineas loves cake! But..."

There were a ton of different kinds of cake mix. German Chocolate. Devil's Food. Black Forest. Fudge Marble. Yellow. Pineapple Supreme. Angel Food. And a few others...

"...there's so many! How do I choose?"

And then, Katie saw a sign. A sign of divine intervention. One that would tell her the perfect cake to make for Phineas. A sign...

That was actually the cover of a cookbook. A cookbook featuring recipes actually made by the Titanium Bakers, the world's best pastry chefs who can be seen on TV every Sunday night on the Yum Network. The chef on the front was showing off a gorgeous, red-frosted cake. Katie was starstruck as she read the caption in the upper right corner.

"'Jonny Day's Award-Winning Red Velvet Cake,'" Katie read aloud. "Oh, that looks so good! I **HAVE** to make one!"

She opened the cookbook and searched it for the page with the recipe on it. Once she found it, she took out a pen and modified her shopping list with the proper ingredients.

* * *

Half an hour later, Katie was pushing a cart up to one of the registers, having exchanged her basket for it after realizing how many different items she needed to bake a cake. Regardless, she started putting them up on the conveyor belt, one at a time, identifying each item aloud as she did.

"Eggs. Flour. Red food coloring. Vegetable shortening. Vanilla extract. Baking soda. Quart of milk. Confectioners' sugar. Cocoa powder. Buttermilk. Vinegar. And... sugar. Of the regular kind!"

The cashier rang up all of the items, and the total showed up on the display. Katie owed... 41 dollars and 35 cents.

"**WHAT?**" Katie shouted in surprise.

She pulled out a mini-wallet from her pocket and showed it to the cashier, revealing to her that the only thing in it was a $10 bill.

"Really? This is a joke, right?"

Katie shook her head. She didn't know what to do.

"What do you think this is? 1963?"

The cashier groaned and reached for the microphone next to her register and pressed the 'speak' button on its base.

"Pickup at register five! Got a kid who tried to buy way more than she could afford!"

Katie lowered her head in embarrassment as she walked away from the register and headed for the exit, with cashiers and customers alike watching her depart as if she was being led to the electric chair.

* * *

Katie had made her way outside to a bench near a soda machine, and she buried her face in her hands and started to cry. Tears flowed from her eyes as she saw her chance at winning over Phineas get shot down, and it wasn't even noon yet.

She was like that for several minutes, and many patrons passed by her, not even showing the least bit of caring for a little girl in distress. But finally, somebody riding on a bike took pity on her, as she stopped right in front of her.

"What's wrong?"

Katie lowered her hands from her face and looked up. The one who had come to comfort her... was Ginger, one of her fellow troop members.

"Ginger?"

"Did Phineas say no to you already?"

"What? Of course not!"

"Guess he's not such a cute boy after all."

Katie stood up and adamantly repeated her answer to the Ginger's question.

"I said he didn't say no! In fact, I haven't even gone to see him today yet!"

"Oh," Ginger finally backed down. "So... why are you crying?"

Katie dried her eyes with her shirt sleeves and explained what had happened inside the supermarket. After she had finished, Ginger responded.

"So they kicked you out for not having enough money?"

"What? No! I kicked myself out!"

"And she was right. Since when was ten dollars enough to buy the ingredients to make a cake?"

"I see that now, thanks! No need to keep making me look like an idiot!"

"Sorry," Ginger apologized. "If you only had ten dollars, then why didn't you just find a bake sale and buy him a slice of cake that someone else made?"

"Because I want to give Phineas a slice of cake that I made, with my own two hands!"

"That'll take you all day! Just go buy a piece of cake! He's not gonna know the difference!"

"This is Phineas we're talking about! Of course he's gonna know the difference!"

"No, he won't!"

"Yes, he will!"

"Really?"

"Really!"

Ginger sighed. "Look, I don't agree with you one bit, Katie, but if you insist on making the cake yourself..."

She pointed to a flier that was taped to the supermarket window above the bench where Katie had been sitting. It was advertising a class offering cooking lessons for kids and teenagers at Chef Guilbald's Cooking School.

"I attend that class every Saturday," Ginger explained, "and we're each allowed to bring in a guest for one session without them having to pay for the entire course."

"So you mean..."

"Yep! And you're in luck! We happen to be learning how to bake cakes today!"

"What a fortunate coincidence!"

"I know, right?"

"What are we waiting for?" Katie looked at Ginger. "Let's go!"

* * *

The girls made their way to Chef Guilbald's Cooking School, arriving just in time for the start of class. Katie and Ginger headed for the last remaining open counter in the classroom. There, they found a small amount of tools and ingredients exclusively for their use, like a spatula, an electric mixer, a carton of a dozen eggs, and small bags of flour and sugar. There was also a booklet of about 20 pages or so stapled together, which had basic cake baking instructions and safety rules, as well as a few recommended cake recipes, there as well.

"Good afternoon, class!" Chef Guilbald greeted them. "Today, you will learn how to bake a cake!"

"Hooray!" everyone in the room cheered.

"It may seem simple to make, but they are really easy to mess up! Therefore, make sure you read everything in your booklets and please, please ask me questions if you have them."

Katie had already picked the booklet up and was looking through the recipes. It didn't take her long to find the one for red velvet cake.

"Yes!" Katie cheered. "It's in here!"

Ginger leaned in to see what recipe Katie had chosen.

"That sounds complicated," Ginger stated aloud. "So many ingredients."

"Phineas builds complicated things," Katie said in response. "This is perfect for him!"

"But I've only been to a few classes here and you have no cooking experience at all! In fact, you have trouble making anything!"

"Don't bring up the..." Katie warned her friend.

"Remember when we tried to raise funds to save the star-nosed mole and Isabella put you in charge of the lemonade stand?"

Katie grumbled, then came up with a counter-argument.

"Remember, we also tried to do a bake sale for that! That wasn't my fault!"

"Wasn't it you that forgot to set the timer?"

"**THE POINT IS...** ahem, the point is, that was weeks ago. I've learned from my mistakes. Plus, I'm a Fireside Girl! I can do anything!"

"Uh... I'm pretty sure 'I can do anything' isn't our motto!"

"Look," Katie frowned at Ginger. "Are you gonna help me or not?"

"Okay, okay!" Ginger gave in. "I just don't think we can pull this off."

"We'll pull this off, I assure you that we will!"

Katie then added, with a smirk.

"Or we'll die trying!"

Ginger gulped. "I was afraid you were gonna say that."

* * *

Once given permission, Katie and Ginger joined the rest of the class in getting whatever necessary tools and ingredients they needed from the pantry, the walk-in fridge, or Chef Guilbald himself. Luckily for them, all of the ingredients they needed to make a red velvet cake were on hand for them to use.

"Let's get started!" Katie exclaimed.

Katie grabbed a hold of two eggs, and measured out one cup of vegetable shortening and a cup-and-a-half of sugar, and put them in a bowl to be creamed together with an electric mixer. Ginger then measured out a teaspoon of cocoa powder and two ounces of red food coloring and mixed them in a small bowl. She then poured that into the bowl Katie was in the midst of mixing.

As Katie continued to mix, Ginger made some measurements, cobbling together two-and-a-half cups of flour, a teaspoon of salt, and a cup of buttermilk, and added them all slowly into the developing batter.

"It says there should be enough batter for two, nine-inch cake pans," Ginger read the serving size information aloud.

"What?" Katie stopped to make sure she had heard Ginger right. "Two, nine-inch cake pans?"

"Yep," nodded Ginger.

"Hmmm... we don't want **THAT** big of a cake. I think we should start over."

"Katie! We can't waste that much product! Chef will make us pay for it!"

"But the cake'll be too big!"

"We've got no choice! Unless you wanna spend the night here washing dishes instead of going to the dance! 'Cause that's what Chef Guilbald will make us do!"

Katie sighed in defeat.

"Alright. Worst-case scenario, we'll bring it to the dance to share with everyone."

"Now **THAT'S** thinkin' like a Fireside Girl!"

Katie and Ginger resumed adding ingredients to the batter, and soon enough, they were ready to put it in the oven built into the counter. Katie turned on the oven to begin preheating it, while Ginger read up on how to prepare the frosting.

"This is going to be a piece of cake!" Katie declared.

"As long as you remember to set the timer this time!" Ginger reminded her.

* * *

A little more than an hour later, the cake had finished baking and was now sitting atop the girls' counter. Katie and Ginger were giddy with excitement.

"All that's left is to finish the frosting!" Katie shouted.

"And I'll get Chef Guilbald!" exclaimed Ginger.

As Ginger walked away, Katie made her way to the walk-in fridge. While she was gone, an exterminator walked into the classroom. He walked past all the kids, in various stages of the baking process, when he suddenly thought he had forgotten something.

He reached into the fanny pack hanging around his waist and started pulling things out of it and placing them on the counter. The one where Katie and Ginger had been working. Among them was a small brown bottle, which resembled a travel-size container of eyedrops. Only this one carried a very potent liquid form of rat poison.

After about a minute, he found what he was looking for. Or rather, it found him, as he yelped in pain. He pulled his hand out, and saw that a mousetrap had snapped on his right index finger.

He cursed under his breath as he freed himself and then started putting everything else back in his fanny pack. But as he put the things on the counter back in, he grabbed the small bottle of vanilla extract instead of the rat poison. An easy mistake to make, given the two bottles were exactly the same size.

Having gathered everything, the exterminator walked off, just as Katie returned with an aluminum bowl with a thickened mixture of flour and milk in it that they had cooked earlier and had put away briefly to let it cool afterward. Katie didn't even give a second thought as to why an adult man was near her counter as she reached for a clean bowl sitting on the counter. Reaching for ingredients, she threw in the cup of unsalted butter and the cup of confectioners' sugar in. And then she measured out a teaspoon of vanilla extract to add to it, unaware that, as her hand was covering the label, that she was about to add rat poison in instead.

Once she had added the 'extract,' she took a hold of an electric mixer and started to blend the ingredients together. Once it was light and fluffy, Katie added the flour mixture she had retrieved from the fridge and beat that in.

* * *

A few minutes later...

"There! Finished!"

Katie had finished preparing the frosting and had taken upon herself to go ahead and use it to decorate her cake. She stood there for a second to admire her creation.

Ginger returned to do the same.

"Wow!"

"I know, right? So, where's the Chef?"

"Talking to the exterminator. He'll come over when he's done."

Suddenly, Katie heard her phone buzz. She pulled it out and saw that she had a new text message.

"It's from Gretchen," she noted. "'Boys are here at City Hall. Don't think anyone's gotten him to say yes.'"

Katie and Ginger gasped in tandem.

"Not even Isabella?" Ginger wondered out loud. "Whoa..."

"I have to get there, and fast!" Katie declared with determination.

She grabbed a nearby empty white cardboard box, and began to line it with wax paper.

"Wait... what are you doing?"

"Packing the cake to take to Phineas! What else?"

"But... part of the class is showing off our work!" Ginger said to Katie. "I don't credit for being here if the Chef doesn't see what I made!"

"Oh, fine!"

Katie picked up a cake knife and sliced off a small section of the red velvet cake. She then placed it on a paper plate, and handed it to Ginger.

"There! Okay?"

Katie took the rest of the cake and carefully put it inside the box.

"Thanks for the help, Ginger! I really appreciate it!"

"No problem! It's our little secret!"

Ginger winked, at which point Katie shot a confused look back at her.

"We're not supposed to being working together, remember?"

"Oh, right," Katie remembered. "I don't think they'll mind. It's not like you want Phineas, right?"

"Better to be safe than sorry."

Katie nodded, then picked the box up off of the table and started to head for the door.

"See ya!"

As soon as Katie had departed, Chef Guilbald walked up to Ginger, as did the exterminator.

"So, you are ready for me to judge your work?" Chef Guilbald asked her.

Ginger nodded. The chef leaned in, and was taken aback by the fact that only a small piece of the cake, rather than the whole thing, was being presented to him.

"Is this what you've been spending the last 90 minutes doing?" the Chef asked her.

"Well," Ginger explained, "we had built a bigger cake, but Katie was so in a rush to show it to somebody special, and..."

"Enough," he stopped her.

Chef Guilbald then pulled a plastic fork out of his apron with one hand and calmly grabbed the plate with the other.

"So, what kind of cake is it?"

"It's a red velvet cake!"

"Sounds decadent."

The chef dug in and got a forkful. He lifted it up to his mouth, as Ginger looked on, hoping that it would be to his liking. But as he was about to put it in...

"What's this doing here?" the exterminator suddenly asked.

He reached over the counter and grabbed a small brown bottle...

"That's vanilla extract," Ginger identified the item.

The exterminator turned it around to show the label on the front. It read 'rat poison.'

"**WHAT?**"

Chef Guilbald froze in place, the piece of cake his fork was holding was just grazing the front of his lips.

"Sacre bleu!" he exclaimed. "Rat poison?"

The exterminator then tried to put it back in his fanny pack, but was surprised to see a similar shaped brown-colored bottle inside.

"Don't tell me," Ginger gulped again.

Sure enough, when he pulled it out, the label on it read 'Vanilla Extract.' Chef Guilbald tossed both the forkful of cake and the rest of the slice in the plate aside, and turned to glare at Ginger.

"Any good chef always knows what he or she puts in his or her food," he explained to her. "Particularly when he or she puts an ingredient that may certainly **KILL SOMEONE**!"

Those last two words were yelled so loud that everyone in the room stopped what they were doing and looked to see what was going on.

"But it's not my fault!" Ginger defended herself, trying to deflect the blame. "I didn't touch the vanilla extract at all! It was Katie who added... it..."

Ginger suddenly came to a realization. Katie didn't know that she had put poison into the cake. Ginger turned and ran for the door.

"Petite fille, where are you going?" Chef Guilbald shouted at her.

"You're gonna kill him!" Ginger shouted, but into the hall and not back at her teacher. "**YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!**"

* * *

Ginger got on her bike and raced towards City Hall. She didn't know how Katie was going to get there, given it was Ginger that had let her ride along to the Cooking School, but she knew she had to stop Katie before she got that cake to Phineas.

She found herself weaving dangerously in and out of traffic as she got closer and closer to City Hall, as the number of vehicles and pedestrians around her were increasing by the minute.

And then, a couple of blocks away, she spotted a couple of familiar figures standing on a street corner up ahead.

"A-ha!" Ginger thought to herself. "They'll help me!"

Ginger made her way over to the figures, which happened to be Isabella and Adyson. Ginger ignored the two of them showing anger over nearly being run over by her and she got straight to the point.

"Quick! Have you two seen Katie run past here?"

"No," Isabella and Adyson quickly shook their heads.

"Katie!" Ginger yelled as she started to pedal away. "You're gonna kill him! You're gonna kill him!"

* * *

A couple minutes later, Ginger arrived at City Hall, where she was surprised to see a crowd starting to form near the steps.

"Whatever Phineas and Ferb made," Ginger thought out loud, "it must be something **BIG**!"

Ginger then gasped.

"**PHINEAS!** Oh no... I've got to find Katie and stop her!"

Ginger quickly scanned the grounds, looking left, then right, and then left again. Then, just as she was about to start going through the crowd to try and locate her, Ginger spotted Katie emerging from it. She was near the stage, and she was walking towards a wooden table that had been set up beside it.

Ginger ran over to stop Katie.

"Katie, stop! Katie!"

Katie had just placed the white cardboard box on top of the table as she heard Ginger calling for her. Katie turned around to greet her.

"Hey!" Katie waved hello. "Boy, you got here fast!"

"Katie!" Ginger shouted, grabbing her friend by the shoulders. "You can't give that cake to Phineas!"

"What are you talking about?" Katie asked, giving Ginger an odd look.

"The cake! Something... something's wrong with the cake!"

"Huh? No way! We baked it perfectly!"

"You're gonna kill him!" Ginger shouted at her.

Katie did a double-take.

"What?"

"**YOU'RE GONNA KILL HIM!**"

"Stop exaggerating!" Katie shouted back. "It's not that bad! In fact, you helped me make the cake! You saw how great it turned out!"

"But you don't understand! You made a grave mistake!"

"Will you stop beating around the bush and tell me what's wrong with the cake?"

Music began playing behind the girls, from atop the stage, but they ignored it as Ginger pulled Katie away from the table.

"You know how the recipe for the frosting on the cake called for vanilla extract?"

"Yeah. So?"

"That wasn't vanilla extract you used! It was... it was... it was..."

"It was?" Katie motioned for Ginger to spit it out already.

"**IT WAS RAT POISON!**"

Katie was stunned. She couldn't believe her ears. In fact, if she didn't know any better...

"Oh, I see. **NOW** you show your true colors, Ginger!"

"Wait, **WHAT?** You think I'm trying to sabotage you?"

"Well well," Katie crossed her arms over her chest. "Looks like you just admitted it."

"I told you I'm not into Phineas! And I have an 'I Just Saw a Cute Boy Patch' with Baljeet's head on it to prove it!"

Ginger actually did. She pulled it out and attached it to her Velcro sash to prove it. And, sure enough, Baljeet's head was on it. Not Phineas'.

"So..." Katie believed her, showing so as she gulped in fear, "I... put rat poison... in the cake?"

Ginger nodded.

"The cake... I'm giving... to Phineas?"

Ginger nodded again.

"The cake... that Adyson... is touching... right now?"

Ginger shook her head, wondering why Katie would say that... until Katie ran past her and back towards the table.

"**THE CAKE!**" Katie shouted. "**IT'S GOING TO KILL YOU!**"

Adyson couldn't hear Katie over the music as she had a small bit of white cake frosting on her fingertip and was about to put it into her mouth...

**To be continued...**

**Author's Notes:**  
Just as pieces start to fall into place in this puzzle, you realize there's still a couple missing. Adyson, that's a bad cake! Bad cake!

Before you ask... yes, Katie and Ginger are intentionally together. They aren't getting individual chapters. I figure that's okay because if there's anyone in the group who isn't interested in Phineas, other than maybe Gretchen... it's Ginger. Whom everyone knows has a visible crush on Baljeet. And yes, she withdraws from the competition even though she knows Baljeet has a date... or rather, several, for the dance already.

Speaking of which, almost there, folks! Just one Fireside Girl left...


	7. Adyson's Attitude Adjustment

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

Through the first six chapters of this story, Adyson Sweetwater has been the most antagonistic, and also the one who pushed for this challenge to win Phineas' heart. Now, you finally get to see how she tries to woo the young redhead.

And maybe... you might see that she's not the bad girl in all this?

**Disclaimer:** The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Seven - Adyson's Attitude Adjustment (10.12.10)**  
**-**

The digital clock on the nightstand displayed a time of 7:58 am. But whomever it belonged to was already awake. In fact, said person was tossing clothes out of the closet, in a rush to find something to wear. But not for going out right now. Rather, for the Girls' Choice Dance that night, which was exactly 12 hours away and counting.

"I've got to be stunning..."

More clothes came flying out...

"I've got to be fabulous..."

And even more clothes...

"But most of all... I've got to be Phineas' new girl!"

The girl intending to take Isabella's place in Phineas' heart? None other than Adyson Sweetwater.

"Wait..." Adyson perked up, possibly finding a 'winner' in her wardrobe. "That's it!"

* * *

Adyson changed into the 'winner' and made her way to the life-size mirror attached to the back of her bedroom door. She was ecstatic as she looked at herself in the sparkling red dress. It was tastefully tame, as the only skin it showed off was her arms from the elbow down and a three-inch radial opening underneath her neck.

"It looks good," Adyson said aloud, before contemplating whether it was enough, "but... is it good enough?"

Adyson walked over to her desk, where she sat down in front of her computer. She reached for the small webcam atop the monitor and adjusted it. Then, after tapping a few keys, she stood up, stepped back, and struck a pose. Seconds later, her camera snapped a photo of her.

"Now, to do a few photo-friendly touch-ups! After all, everyone does it!"

Adyson opened a photo editing program and got to work. She started with some simple, innocent things, like brightening the photo, replacing the background of her dirty room with a picture of her outside in a sunny meadow, and editing out a few out-of-place strands of her hair. Then, she got a little seedy, as she edited out the shoulder straps, cut the top of the dress so that it would be more uniform, and then she cut away some of the lower part of her dress so that a slit in the side of it that went up to just above her knee was visible, showing off her bare left ankle and foot.

"There's nothing wrong with a little embellishing," she commented to herself, "especially when it comes to boys!"

She then painted on a red two-inch high-heel shoe on the exposed foot, and saved it to her hard drive. Adyson then glanced at the clock. It was 8:01.

"Time to start Operation: Steal Phineas from Isabella!"

Adyson reached for her cell phone and dialed Phineas' number. It only took a couple of rings for her call to be answered.

"Hello?"

"Phineas? It's me, Adyson! You mind if I ask... what'cha doin'?"

"Glad you asked," Phineas happily replied. "We're building this thing that projects important messages into the sky. You know, so people will never forget anything."

"Wow," Adyson gasped, pretending to think it was interesting.

"Still haven't thought of a name yet..."

"Oh! How about the Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector?"

"Hmmm..." Phineas thought out loud, "it sounds so simple... and yet, it's **PERFECT**! Thanks, Adyson!"

"Actually," Adyson got to the point of her call, "you can thank me by answering a question for me."

Before even hearing a response, Adyson pulled out a cable that connected her phone to a USB port on her computer. Her phone started to immediately download her photo-shopped picture, just as Phineas gave Adyson a reply.

"Sure thing!"

"You will? That's great, Phineas! Gimme a few seconds..."

Once the picture had been successfully downloaded onto her cell phone, Adyson immediately sent it via text message.

"I'm sending you a picture... do you think I look good in this?"

Adyson confidently smirked. She knew there was no way he was going to say no.

"Hold on... I'm getting it now, and..."

For a few seconds, Adyson heard nothing but dead air. She smiled, then promptly hung up the phone.

"That's exactly the non-reaction I was hoping for. Oh, Phineas is **SO** mine!"

* * *

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Baljeet said over the phone. "It's completely unethical..."

"What are you worried about?" Adyson asked in response as she walked down the street. "No one's going to know you're involved. And if someone does find out, I'll still uphold my promise!"

"I never should've agreed to that..." Baljeet grumbled.

"Like Izzy's gonna give you the time of day! Now... let's do this!"

"Fine."

Adyson heard Baljeet do some typing on his end, and after about 15 seconds of that...

"There. It's done. Happy?"

"Much."

Adyson then ended the call. And just in time, too, as she had made it to the Flynn-Fletcher driveway. She pressed a couple buttons on her phone, and, after a small delay, a map was displayed on her screen. On it were seven dots. A red one, which signified her current position, a pink one, which did the same for Isabella, and five orange ones to designate where the rest of the troop was.

Standing in the driveway, Adyson verified that the red dot was actually positioned at her current location. It was then that she noticed that one of the orange dots was there as well.

"What?" she gasped. "Someone else is here?"

Adyson then heard voices approaching her. She quickly ducked into a nearby bush to hide, then tried not to move as she tried to figure out who it was. Seconds later, she saw Candace and her mom emerge from the inside of the house. And they were followed by... Milly.

"What's she doing here?" Adyson asked herself. "And with Candace?"

Adyson continued to observe, hoping to pick up on Milly's plan. After about a minute, Linda then turned to get into the family station wagon, and Candace and Milly followed, with the younger girl climbing into the back seat. Adyson sat there and waited until the vehicle pulled out of the driveway and down the street before coming out of her hiding place. Just to confirm Milly was actually in the car, Adyson looked down at her cell phone and saw Milly's dot moving away from the house.

"Good," Adyson smiled. "As long as everyone keeps their cell phones on, I'll know exactly where they are at all times!"

Adyson ran to the backyard, and saw Phineas and Ferb hard at work on their idea-of-the-day. She squatted down just on the other side of the fence, content with just watching them work. For now.

But as she observed them, a strange feeling overcame her as she kept her eyes focused on Phineas. A feeling... of emptiness?

"Why am I doing this?" Adyson asked herself. "I don't even like him in that way."

Adyson took another look over at Phineas, then ducked back behind the corner.

"No... nothing! Then why..."

She was snapped out of her thought when her phone started ringing. It recognized the number as being Isabella's.

"Oh," she said, deadpanned. "Her."

Adyson answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Sweetwater!"

"Stop referring to me by my last name," Adyson told her. "That's condescending."

"Look, I know what you're up to!" scolded Isabella.

"Why, I have **NO** idea what you're talking about!" Adyson lied.

"Go ahead and play 'Little Miss Innocent.' But I **WILL** find out what you're up to, and stop you!"

"I'm only doing what any self-respecting girl would do in my situation. Free agents are exactly that, Isabella. Free."

"Phineas is mine, and if you think I'm gonna allow you to sink your evil claws into him..."

"Whoa, whoa!" Adyson cut in. "Evil? If anyone's evil, Izzy, it's you."

"What?"

"Leaving Phineas dangling out there, for anyone to take. If you were truly his girlfriend, you'd lock his heart up and throw away the key. But wait... you're not. What's the matter, Izzy? Afraid of commitment?"

Isabella growled. "You better hope that when I get back there that you're not all over Phineas like butter on toast!"

"Or what? Isabella, you don't have a mean bone in your body! You think I feel threatened by **YOU**?"

"**OOH!** That's it, Adyson, it's on!"

With that, Isabella ended the call. Adyson snickered.

"She's all riled up. Perfect. It'll make it easier to take her down a peg."

Adyson looked over at Phineas and smirked.

"Of course, I'll let her win Phineas. No use pursuing a boy I don't love like that. But... I'm gonna make her work for it."

She started walking over, just as the boys happened to be coming down to take a lunch break.

"Adyson!" Phineas greeted her. "I guess Isabella got my message to you?"

"Yep. We got cut off earlier, and I didn't get a chance to call you back, so I appreciate youuuuu..."

Adyson purposely tripped over her own two feet, and she spun around and stumbled backwards towards Phineas. She let gravity do the rest.

"**EEK!**"

She closed her eyes and dreamed of Phineas reaching out and catching her. She felt his arms grab a hold of her, and she sighed in relief.

"Are you okay?" she heard Phineas ask her.

Adyson opened her eyes, and saw she was staring right into Phineas'. She giggled, then let him lift her back up on her feet.

"You saved my life, Phineas! You're **MY** hero!"

"It was nothing. You just tripped..."

Adyson wrapped her arms around Phineas and gave him a big squeeze of a hug. Phineas was stunned, to say the least. He shot a glance over at his step-brother, who responded by... giving him a thumbs up.

"Wha? Ferb, now I'm even more befuddled."

Adyson let go of Phineas, ran her fingers through his tuft of hair, and giggled again.

"There's gotta be something I can do to repay you."

"Like I said," Phineas told her, not quite understanding what Adyson was hinting at, "it was nothing."

"So modest," Adyson winked at him. "Tell you what... I'll give you some time to let it sink in. Where are you going to be in a few hours?"

"Uh..." Phineas revealed. "City Hall. That's where we wanna set..."

"Good," Adyson said as she started to walk off. "I'll meet you there. Maybe by then, you'll let me reward you."

Adyson skipped out of the yard, happy that she again had gotten the desired reaction from Phineas. Once she was out of his sight, Adyson stopped her prancing and walked normally down the driveway.

"All according to plan," Adyson rubbed her hands together. "At least I got him thinking about me. At the very least, it'll keep him from saying yes to anyone else. Now... I have to make Isabella really sweat!"

* * *

Adyson left the suburbs and headed downtown, looking to further ensure her success by checking on where the other girls were. She spotted Gretchen at the hardware store, figured out that Katie and Ginger were together at a cooking school, and noted Holly leaving the mall while Milly remained there. She also noted Isabella at some point having made her way back to Phineas' house. But she wasn't worried. Isabella would be too busy helping out Phineas that she'd forget to ask the question.

Satisfied, Adyson decided to have a little 'me' time...

* * *

...before eventually making her way to City Hall. She had gotten there just as Phineas, Ferb, and Isabella were pulling up, although none of them had noticed her arrival as of yet.

"Let's see how Izzy handles this," Adyson said aloud.

Adyson made her way over to the cab and opened the passenger side door. She saw Isabella sitting there, her arm extended to open the door herself.

"Adyson?"

"Isabella. Well, well. The fact that you're still hanging around Phineas means..."

"You haven't gotten the chance to ask him, have you?"

Adyson smirked. "So, looks like we're in the same boat, oh fearless leader!"

* * *

"Fine," Adyson agreed. "We can give out fliers, Gretchen can stay and help Phineas."

Isabella and Gretchen nodded in agreement. As Gretchen headed off to do her job, Isabella and Adyson debated which way to go.

"Let's go this way," Adyson suggested, pointing one way.

But Isabella grabbed Adyson by the collar and forcefully pulled her the other way, showing she was tired of her subordinate's antics.

"I'm in charge, so we're doing this **MY** way! Now, c'mon!"

Isabella snatched some of the fliers from Adyson with her free hand, then continued to pull her down the street.

"What am I, your slave now?" Adyson shouted.

"It's the only way I can keep your grubby hands off my man!" Isabella shot back.

"Ow! You're hurting me!"

"**GOOD!**"

Adyson gulped. This wasn't working out as she thought it would.

* * *

Isabella pulled Adyson to a street corner, where the two of them began distributing the fliers to pedestrians passing by.

"Now, smile!" Isabella told her. "**OR ELSE!**"

"Aye aye," Adyson mumbled, under her breath.

Adyson couldn't believe that Isabella was treating her like this. Had she taken it too far, and her troop leader was overreacting? Did Izzy actually hate her for what she was doing? All Adyson wanted to do was to spur Isabella to take control and gather the courage to ask Phineas out.

"We are doing whatever it takes for Phineas to succeed today!" Isabella said aloud. "And I'm doing whatever it takes to keep you from asking him out to that dance!"

"And you're willing to hurt me to assure that?" Adyson asked, rubbing the back of her neck for emphasis.

"Hurt you? You brought all of this on yourself!"

"Excuse me? I didn't think 'causing bodily harm' was part of the deal!"

"You asked for it! Especially when you decided to have this little competition! Again, I reiterate... you don't even care about Phineas like I do!"

"Y-y-yes!" Adyson stuttered, not sure of whether to continue playing her little scheme or not. "Yes, I do!"

Isabella frowned.

"You think this is funny, Adyson? Toying with my emotions?"

"Toying? Me?"

"There you go again! This **ISN'T** a game!"

"It's not a game to me!" exclaimed Adyson. "I really, really don't want to go to that dance by myself! Neither do any of the others!"

Isabella then made a bold declaration.

"You're a liar, Adyson Sweetwater!"

Adyson gasped. She couldn't believe her ears.

"So?" Isabella glared at her. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Adyson racked her brain for a response. A witty comeback, perhaps? Or an admission that Isabella was right? Maybe a clever redirect, hoping to get Isabella to think about something else?

None of the above, it turned out, as another option would come into play. Ginger. On a bike. Nearly running the two of them over.

And in a panic.

"Are you **TRYING** to kill someone?" Isabella yelled at Ginger.

"Sorry," Ginger hastily apologized, "I didn't mean to! I'm just... have you seen Katie?"

* * *

After watching Ginger race off, Adyson and Isabella decided to head back to City Hall. There, they... or, at least in reality, Isabella, saw her chances at winning Phineas' heart start to go up in smoke. They were with Gretchen, who was effectively pulling out of the competition, as they watched their fellow troop members try to woo Phineas.

"Okay," Isabella barked orders. "Gretchen, stop Milly from gettin' to that stage! Adyson, handle whatever surprise Katie and Ginger are springing! And I'll take care of Holly!"

"Aye aye!" Gretchen and Adyson acknowledged in agreement.

"Then, let's go girls!"

Gretchen headed off, and Isabella was about to too, when Adyson reached out to stop her, grabbing her by the shoulder.

"Adyson!"

"Look," Adyson said to her, with a sad look on her face, "about all of this..."

"Save it," Isabella said as she broke free. "I think we have nothing more to discuss."

Isabella then bolted for the stage to stop Holly. Adyson stood there and watched her disappear into the crowd.

"I think she hates me," Adyson told herself. "I think she **HATES** me right now."

Adyson turned her attention to Katie and Ginger over by the stage, then to the stage itself as Holly appeared atop it, about to break out into song. Adyson then reflected on everything she had done in the past 24 hours, and began to feel regretful for it all.

"I can't believe it. I'm responsible for this. All of **THIS**! All of the... desperation around me!

Adyson felt it all wash over her, as this competition was visibly going to tear the entire troop apart.

"There's only one way to fix this. I've got to help Isabella win. That's the only way everything will return to normal!"

She started running towards the side of the stage...

* * *

...where she found the table where Katie had put down the cardboard box she had been carrying. Adyson then spotted, out of the corner of her eye, that Ginger had pulled Katie aside and they seemed to be arguing about something.

"What could they be arguing about?"

It then came back to Adyson.

"Kill him? Ginger was saying that Katie was gonna kill him! As in kill Phineas! But how..."

Adyson then looked at the cardboard box in front of her.

"This?"

She opened it. Inside, she found a beautifully-designed cake with vanilla white frosting on it. Adyson was confused.

"Cake. It's... just a cake."

She reached in, sticking her finger into the frosting to get a taste. She did it without looking, which means she missed seeing a small paw print about four inches in front of her digit. Adyson swirled her finger around, getting a good bit of the frosting on it, before pulling it out.

"I don't get it," Adyson said aloud. "This looks like a perfectly good cake..."

Adyson then brought her finger up towards her mouth to devour the frosting that now adorned it. But just as she was about to, she heard someone screaming at her to stop.

"**THE CAKE!**" Katie shouted. "**IT'S GOING TO KILL YOU!**"

Katie leaped into the air and used a flying tackle to knock Adyson to the ground. The two of them landed on the ground, with Katie on top of Adyson. Ginger rushed over and gasped upon seeing the end result.

Adyson's back was flat on the ground, and Katie was right on top, with their stomachs touching and their legs tangled together. Their lips also happened to be only a few inches away from each other. The only reason their lips hadn't touched was that Katie had braced her fall by hitting the ground with the palms of her hands down.

Oh, and the fact that Adyson's frosted finger had found its way into Katie's mouth and to the back of her throat.

"K-K-K-Katie," Ginger stuttered, fearing the worst.

Katie gulped as she grasped for an answer, swallowing the frosting. Adyson pushed Katie off of her and sat up on the ground while pulling her finger out, now covered in saliva instead of frosting, all in one motion.

"Now I'm gonna die!" Katie screamed. "**AAAAHHH!**"

"Can somebody **PLEASE** explain what's going on?" demanded Adyson.

Ginger whispered her answer to Adyson. The girl's eyes widened in shock.

"Rat poison? You tried to poison me?"

"Actually," Ginger corrected. "She tried to poison Phineas."

"That doesn't make it any better!"

"It was an accident!" exclaimed Katie. "I didn't know! And now... I've poisoned myself!"

"Calm down," Adyson said, taking charge. "Do you feel nauseated? Dizzy? Are you in pain?"

Katie thought for a second, then answered the questions.

"No, no, and... no."

"That's weird," noted Adyson. "Those are the symptoms of a person who has been poisoned... and they usually occur almost immediately after swallowing the tainted item."

Ginger looked confused as to why Katie was fine, so she went over to the box and opened it again.

"This is not the time to be lying to me," Adyson told Katie. "Your life could be in danger!"

"I'm telling the truth!" Katie fired back. "I don't feel anything!"

"This might explain why," Ginger said the two of them.

She brought the open box over and put it down on the ground in front of him. Adyson and Katie looked inside, and the latter girl gasped.

"What?" Adyson asked. "Feel a symptom now?"

"No. But... this isn't my cake!"

"Huh?"

"The cake Katie and I made," Ginger explained. "Was a red velvet cake. This is plainly... vanilla."

"Someone stole the cake I baked for Phineas!" shouted Katie.

"Not to mention it's tainted," Adyson reminded her. "Now instead of killing Phineas, you'll kill some random thief."

"**ADYSON!**" the two girls yelled at her.

"What? I'm telling the truth! Look... maybe it's not too late. Katie, you baked it at the school, right?"

Katie nodded.

"Did you put it down anywhere between there and here?"

Katie tried to remember, but before she could recollect her thoughts, the trio was interrupted when an irate Phineas stomped up to them. Along with Ferb, Irving, Isabella, and the rest of the Fireside Girls.

"**WILL SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?**" Phineas yelled.

Everyone stood there silently for a second, no one willing to step up and give a straight answer. The only noise that could be heard was Irving, who was munching on a green apple.

So loudly, in fact, that every turned to glare at him.

"**WHAT?** I'm hungry!"

**To be concluded...**

**Author's Notes:**  
Everyone's got some explaining to do...

Adyson is a hard girl to figure out, and as you can see, her emotions about this whole situation have scrambled her rationality. Was she mistaken in throwing down the gauntlet? Or does she just need to figure out the right way to give her friend relationship advice?

At the same time... maybe this whole conflict has changed Isabella as well. That is, if Adyson's account is accurate...

Lots of questions to be answered in the finale. Look for it soon!


	8. A Decision is Made

**"Phineas is Mine!"**  
**Story Written by Freedom Fighter**

Time to wrap this up! Who will Phineas say yes to?

**Disclaimer:** The characters of 'Phineas and Ferb' belong to Disney.

**-**  
**Chapter Eight - A Decision is Made (10.18.10)**  
**-**

"**WILL SOMEONE EXPLAIN WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?**" Phineas yelled.

Phineas glared unhappily at Isabella and the Fireside Girls stood around him, as well as Ferb and Irving, who was munching on a green apple... to everyone's disgust.

"**WHAT?** I'm hungry!"

Milly calmly reached in, grabbed the partially eaten apple from his hand, and tossed it in the trash can behind her.

"I guess the jig is up," sighed Adyson.

"Yeah," Isabella said as she turned to Phineas. "Phineas, we all have confessions to make."

"Not me," argued Ginger. "I wanted Baljeet."

Katie gently elbowed Ginger in the stomach.

"Oof, I mean, yes, **WE** all have confessions," she corrected herself.

"You see," Isabella began to explain, "it all started yesterday, after we got back from the Fireside Girl Jamboree..."

Phineas listened closely as Isabella summarized the last 24 hours.

"We found out there was going to be this dance tonight. A girls' choice dance. Naturally, I was going to ask yo... um, I mean, a friend. But it turned out this friend was the only boy without a date."

"That's where the rest of us jumped in," Adyson cut in. "None of us wanted to go to the dance by ourselves, so I came up with the idea to have all of us compete to see who could ask yo... the friend... out and get him to say 'yes.'"

"We all came up with different ideas to try out..."

"Some crazy, crazy ideas."

The girls started rattling off their plans, informing each other of what they had tried.

"I just did what I normally do," Isabella led off.

"I used a scientific approach," proclaimed Gretchen.

"I baked a cake!" Katie shouted.

"And I helped!" added Ginger.

"I wrote a love song!" sang Holly.

"Which wasn't what I had agreed too," grumbled Irving.

"I dressed to impress, but failed," Milly frowned.

"And I tried to be flirty and fun!" exclaimed Adyson.

"But it looks like none of it worked," Isabella lowered her head.

"Actually, boss," Gretchen tried to prove otherwise. "I actually got him to say... yes."

All the girls, other than Isabella and Adyson, gasped loudly.

"But he didn't know what he was agreeing to, right?" Isabella and Adyson said in unison.

Gretchen gulped. "Yeah... so... I withdraw the affirmation."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Phineas tried to wrap his triangular head around this glut of new information. "Just who exactly is this boy that you all were trying to ask out?"

Everyone looked at Phineas, surprised that he hadn't gotten it yet. The girls immediately started to shoot blatant hints at him.

"How can you not get it?" Isabella asked, dumbfounded.

"Were you not listening to my song?" Holly shouted.

"It was our song," Irving glared at her, "and I didn't like it!"

"I nearly served you a poisonous cake!" yelled a frustrated Katie.

"And I helped!" added Ginger.

"I betrayed the trust of my two best friends for you!" cried Gretchen.

"I embarrassed myself by wearing two apples!" whined Milly.

"I blackmailed Baljeet into helping me," Adyson revealed, "and if I didn't win you, I agreed to go on a date with him."

Everyone froze upon hearing that. Adyson realized what she had just slipped out and palmed her face with her right hand.

"Oh, nuts!"

But then, the reality of what everyone else had done also hit the group, and the girls started arguing with each other.

"You tried to poison Phineas?" Isabella yelled at Katie.

"It was Ginger's fault for not being there," Katie tried to pass the blame.

"I can't believe Baljeet agreed to date you!" Ginger said in disbelief.

"At least I wasn't as desperate as Holly," Adyson said in her defense. "Irving? Really?"

"I had little to work with!" Holly shouted, before turning to Milly. "And what was going on in your little head with the apples?"

"I blame Candace," Milly said. "Gretchen, the message in the sky?"

"I blame Stacy," replied Gretchen. "But I was trying to help Isabella."

"As was I," Adyson cut in, before adding. "Well, after a few hours."

"I wish the song I wrote helped Isabella," Holly admitted.

"I made a fool of myself," Milly thought aloud, "so I guess I was helping too."

"I was thinking of letting Izzy take credit for the cake," Katie said as she twiddled her thumbs.

"And I helped!" added Ginger. "In passing the credit to her, that is."

"Wait a minute!" Isabella waved her hands about to get their attention.

All of the girls looked towards their troop leader.

"After everything that's happened. In the end... you all wanted me to win?"

The six girls nodded in unison.

"At the end of the day, we wouldn't want it any other way, Chief!" Gretchen exclaimed.

"Besides," Adyson put her hand on Isabella's shoulder, "there's no way any of us could see what you have for years in less than a day!"

"Yeah!" the others agreed.

"So..." Isabella looked at them, "the past 24 hours?"

"Are nothing more than a distant memory!" answered Adyson. "It was wrong for all of us to do what we did. For me, especially. I should have known not to mess with true love."

"Really, Adyson?"

"Yes. I don't know what it's going to take for you to forgive me. But I truly am sorry for all of this. Only one girl deserved to win, and it was you."

"Awww..."

Isabella and Adyson hugged, and the rest of the troop cheered as they saw the hatchet being buried, to their relief.

"Well, isn't that nice?" Phineas smiled as he saw Isabella and Adyson make up. "Glad you two are friends again... though I'm not sure why you had broken up in the first place. Still... good for you!"

Isabella and Adyson glared at Phineas.

"Um... did I say something wrong?"

"Isabella? Are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"I think so, Adyson, but if your dress really looks like the one in that photo, I'm telling YOUR mom!"

"Uh," Adyson blinked, "I was talking about..."

Adyson whispered the rest in Isabella's ear.

"Oh! Yeah. I'm pondering that too."

The two then looked Phineas' way, with smug smiles on their faces. Realizing what was about to happen, Ferb sidestepped out of the way, leaving his stepbrother by his lonesome self. Adyson ran behind Phineas and grabbed him by the arms, keeping him from moving. The young boy got a little worried as Isabella approached him.

"What do you think they're up to?" Milly innocently asked.

"I think Chief's about to pop the question," deduced Gretchen.

Irving was about to jump in and interfere, but Holly, Katie, and Ginger jumped him instead, pinning him to the ground. They tied their sashes together and used them to bind his arms and legs. Then Ferb came in with a piece of masking tape and placed it over his mouth as the girls took a seat on his back to keep Irving grounded.

"Should I be worried?" Phineas asked aloud.

"Oh, be quiet and let it happen," Adyson told him, in a scolding tone.

"Phineas?" Isabella squeaked meekly, looking into his eyes.

"Isabella?"

"I... I... I have something to ask you."

Phineas turned his head to look back at Adyson, then back forward to look at Isabella again.

"Um... okay."

Isabella was elated. Her moment had finally come!

"Phineas, I was wondering..."

She took a deep breath, then went for all the marbles.

"Will you..."

"**MOM!**"

Candace had walked onto the scene, and, as usual, she was determined to bust Phineas and Ferb. Her mom was right behind her, waiting to see what they had done. Or hadn't, as the case normally would be.

"See?" Candace shouted, pointing out the kids.

"See what, honey?" Linda asked with a frown, as she put her hands on her hips.

Candace looked around and saw... nothing. The boys' idea-of-the-day was inexplicably gone, and so was the crowd that had come to see it.

Okay, there wasn't exactly nothing. The stage was there, albeit empty, and so was the cardboard box with the cake Katie and Ginger hadn't baked in it. And that's what Linda walked over to take a look at.

"Oh, how cute! Who baked the cake?"

Katie oddly tried to raise her hand to take credit, but Ginger grabbed it and stopped her.

"Regardless, it looks fabulous! What do you say we take it home so we can all eat it?"

"Yeah!" everyone shouted.

The entire group started to walk off, even Phineas, whom headed off after Adyson had released him during the 'distraction.' All except for Isabella, Adyson, and Candace.

"So... how did you all get here?" Linda asked, her voice trailing off. "I definitely don't have room for all..."

Adyson walked over and gave Isabella a pat on the back.

"You were this close," Adyson said to her, indicating so by showing her right thumb and index finger an inch apart. "No thanks to Candace."

"Hey!" Candace objected.

"There's still time," Isabella tried to look positively. "The Girls' Choice Dance is a couple hours away, and I have the whole car ride back..."

"The dance got canceled," the redheaded teenager interjected.

"**WHAT?**" Isabella and Adyson shouted simultaneously.

"Yeah. They couldn't find a suitable venue. It's been all over the news all day. Haven't you heard?"

"About that," Adyson replied, "we've been kinda preoccupied."

"We were all competing to see who got to ask Phineas out to the dance," explained Isabella. "But since there's no dance..."

"Wait!" Candace glared at them. "You mean to tell me you and your friends were **NOT** helping Phineas and instead we're trying to compete to win his heart? But I thought..."

"Isabella's the only girl for him?" Adyson cut in. "Yeah, we figured that out."

"After about 24 hours of unselfish panic," Isabella reminded her.

"I apologized! Sheesh!"

"That explains why you all were acting less normal than usual," Candace concluded. "But I don't get why Milly would buy apples as a gift."

"You don't wanna know the real reason," Isabella assured her.

The three girls started to head off, feeling that everything had been resolved, even if not as expected.

"Say," Adyson suddenly spoke up as she looked at Isabella, "I have this feeling that there's something we forgot to resolve."

"Like what?"

Behind them, Irving's muffled screams of help could be heard, as he tried to inch around on the ground after the girls.

"It's the cake."

"What about the cake?"

"Katie told me the cake she made... you know, the one they accidentally put poison in... was a red velvet cake."

Isabella remembered looking inside the box the cake was in as Linda had walked by her a minute ago.

"But... that just looked like a plain vanilla cake. With one paw print in it."

"Yeah. So... what happened to the tainted one?"

"I guess we'll never know. But I'm sure there's nothing to worry about."

"Woof!"

Isabella and Adyson stopped upon hearing the bark and looked down to see Pinky in front of them, panting heavily with glee.

"Ah, there you are, Pinky! I thought I left you back at Phineas' house!"

Isabella picked up Pinky, and she and Adyson resumed their walk. All the while, Pinky shook and shook and shook.

* * *

_A short time ago..._

_Pinky, wearing his secret agent hat, was at the table where the cake had been put down by Katie. As Katie and Ginger argued off to the side, Pinky grabbed the box on the table and replaced it with a similar one that he had with him._

_He then dragged the box with the tainted cake with his teeth over to a nearby garbage can, and tossed it in without anyone seeing him._

_Pinky then turned around and saw Perry, also wearing his secret agent hat, undo a belt that bound him to four remote-controlled rockets. Perry then attached them to different parts of the boys' Virtual Reminder Bulletin Board Projector. The rockets then activated, and lifted the large device into the sky. Strangely enough, in the direction of Doofenshmirtz Evil, Incorporated._

_The deed done, Perry saw Pinky standing there, and the two winked at each other._

* * *

"Oh, there you are, Perry!"

Phineas picked Perry up from the ground as Isabella, still with Pinky in her arms, walked up to him.

"So," Phineas suddenly said to her, "I believe that you were going to ask me something?"

Isabella shook her head.

"Forget it. It was nothing."

"You sure? Because it sure didn't seem..."

"**SHE SAID IT WAS NOTHING!**" Adyson shouted, jumping in between them.

"Okay, okay!" Phineas surrendered.

Phineas turned to walk away, and Isabella shot an annoyed look at Adyson.

"C'mon, we all know what was going to happen!"

"You're right," Isabella agreed, with some reluctance.

She then looked up at the sky, which was growing darker as the sun set in the background.

"But he'll get it one day. I know he will."

Adyson nodded in agreement.

"So... you and Baljeet..."

Adyson already had her phone out to break the date.

"Aw," teased Isabella. "But you'd look cute together!"

"Don't start with me, Garcia-Shapiro!"

**The End**

**Author's Notes:**  
During the course of this story, a number of things changed. The ending was one. Originally, the final chapter was going to take place at the dance itself, and it had all the girls showing up and telling their stories (in other words, their attempts at winning Phineas). But then they would learn that Gretchen's intel was wrong, and that there were plenty of boys attending that were dateless. The one thing that didn't change about the ending was it ending with Isabella 'presumably' the winner, maintaining the status quo of the show. But with a caveat... that Phineas skips the dance because he forgets about it over the course of day. Naturally, the ending evolved into the version you're reading here, as it became harder and harder for that original conclusion to be feasible.

The story's evolution was also due to a number of chapters ending sooner than I wanted to. The most notable example is Chapter 5, which was originally supposed to end with Candace and her mom coming across Milly with the apples still taped to the front of her shirt. And Mrs. Flynn-Fletcher berating Candace for 'mentoring' Milly to do that.

More notably, all of the chapters were supposed to end with each of the girls actually getting to pop the question to Phineas... although all weren't going to get an immediate answer. That, again, had to be changed when the chapters were constructed.

I still think the fanfic turned out well regardless of the changes from my original vision. The fact that the chapter endings were no longer formulaic and predictable ended up for the better.

Thanks to all of you have read this tale, and especially if you've reviewed it! I also invite you to check out another Phineas & Ferb fic I'm currently writing, called "Doofy and Doofus," starring Vanessa! Also, don't forget to follow my Twitter account at freefightwriter for the latest information on all the stories I write, and new story announcements before they're posted on my profile page or on my website!


End file.
